A New Generation
by missgrant
Summary: New page, Ella of Brightleigh, is thrilled to discover that her Training Mistress is none other than Keladry of Mindelan. But will Ella's dark family history hamper her in her quest for knighthood?
1. First Day

**I couldn't resist! This story popped into my head the other day and I couldn't shake it off. I have no idea beyond the first few chapters where it's going to go, or how long it's going to be. **

**This story is completely separate from "Welcome Back to Scanra" and "When the War Was Over" (although it could come after both of them). It follows on from _Lady Knight_ about fifteen years later, with a whole new generation of Pages entering the Palace. And guess who the new Training Mistress is...?**

**Hope you enjoy! (P.s. This chapter has now been updated to remove the mistakes I had made. They were really annoying me!)**

**pps. I have updated this chapter for a third and (hopefully final!) time.**

1

Nervously pulling at the hem of her tunic, Ella stepped into the hallway and closed the door behind her. Her palms were sweating. She wiped them on her breeches.

On either side of her, others were also exiting their rooms. She turned her head to study those closest to her. To her left was a boy a few inches taller than herself; stocky with sandy hair and freckles. His brown eyes looked as anxious as she felt.

The girl on her right was more interesting. She was _much_ taller than Ella – though that was no mean feat in itself – with long hair tied back tightly in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her face was round with the small nose and almond shaped eyes of the people from the Yamani Islands. But this girl had dark brown hair, rather than the glossy black of the Yamanis, and her eyes were a startling green.

Catching Ella's eyes upon her, the tall girl smiled; another trait that separated her from the Yamanis, who tended to show no emotion. Ella blinked in surprise and quickly faced forward, feeling her cheeks heat in a blush.

Footsteps from further down the hall made her close her eyes and take a deep breath. This was it. If there was any time she could back out, it would be now. Her father would understand in his usual gentle way, but the thought of the things her mother would say made her cringe inwardly. However, it strengthened her resolve. She was here – she had fought hard to get here – and here she would stay.

If they allowed her to.

The footsteps had drawn closer and stopped. Ella opened her eyes.

She was met with a wall of fabric. Craning her neck backwards, Ella could not prevent her mouth from falling open in shock. She was used to feeling small. Her entire ten years so far had been spent looking up at even her younger cousins and the children of the servants.

The woman in front of her made a dwarf of all of them. She had heard the stories of course – who hadn't – but actually seeing the woman in the flesh was another matter. The fact that the man standing slightly behind her was actually taller and that a few of the more senior pages were not far off, made no difference.

Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan made all of them fade into the background. This was the woman Ella had dreamed of meeting since her older cousin Yanis had first whispered the stories to her. This was the woman Ella dreamed of _being_ someday.

When she was eight years old and she had heard that the Lady Knight had just accepted Padraig haMinch's old post as Training Master – or Training Mistress – Ella had been beside herself with joy. Her dream of training to be a knight had just taken on an exciting new twist. Keladry of Mindelan herself would be responsible for her training during the four years she would be a page!

Ella had been in raptures, but her mother's reaction was very different; if not also very predictable.

"I will not allow it!" she had raged. "It's bad enough that you want to disgrace this family with these wanton ideas of charging about the country like a man, but _now…_" And here her mother had paused, her beautiful fair skin turning an ugly shade of red. "_Now_ you expect me to still let you go, with that…that…that _whore_ acting as your teacher. I will not allow it!"

Standing in the middle of the room that day, Ella had never wished harder in her life for the floor to swallow her whole. She had stared mutely at her dainty shoes, trying to let her mother's tirade just wash over her. It was difficult.

Her father had eventually stepped in. "Lorette. I have let many things slide here, but two things I will not abide. One is that use of language in front of our daughter. The second is you assuming that you have the final say in this household. I wish to remind you that you do not. If Ella wishes to train as a knight, if that is truly her heart's desire, then we will do nothing to prevent her."

Remembering that day sent a flush of warmth through Ella, remembering the loving, supportive look in her father's eyes, as her mother had huffed and stormed her way out of the room. Ever since then, any contact mother and daughter had was stony at best and positively icy at other times. Ella dealt with it by staying out of Lorette's way. It suited her just fine.

And now two years later she was finally here. The voice of the Lady Knight broke through her thoughts.

"Welcome new Pages." The woman's voice was calming and mellow. The youngsters bowed to her.

When Ella straightened, she craned her neck back to look at the Lady Knight's face. It was not the glamorous beauty she had imagined in her daydreams, but a plain face with brown hair cut short at her chin. The more she looked, however, Ella could see a certain feminine prettiness that was out of sync with the large muscular body that supported it. Freckles dusted a tanned, but delicate, nose that perched above full lips. Long lashes framed a pair of dreamy hazel eyes.

Keladry of Mindelan's face showed no emotion as she studied the pages. Not even when she looked at Ella.

_She must know who I am_, Ella thought to herself. _She must have heard that by now._

If she had, the Lady Knight gave no indication. She was busy talking about how they needed sponsors. Ella stood there nervously as the other pages gave their names and were chosen by one of the older pages that flanked the Training Mistress.

"Your name and your fief?" asked Keladry of the girl on the right of Ella. The tall, brown haired man standing behind her gave a wide grin.

"Ryoku of Queenscove, My Lady," said the girl, smiling and bowing.

Ella thought she saw a glimmer of a smile on the Lady's lips, but it was gone as quickly as it was there. "And who will be Page Queenscove's sponsor?"

"If it please you, My Lady," said a boy, who had a similar nose to the tall man. "We are cousins after all."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Which one are you again? I start to lose track after a while."

"Gerard of Masbolle, Sir Nealan. I'm Renard's youngest."

"A Masbolle? Were you there last Midwinter?"

"When you and Uncle Dom had that..." Gerard paused and eyed the Lady Knight. "...competition? Yes, Sir Nealan."

"I'll talk to you about _that_ later," muttered the Lady Knight under her breath. Sir Nealan chuckled.

"Very well then," concurred the Training Mistress. She turned her gaze to Ella. "Your name and fief?"

Swallowing in a suddenly very dry mouth, she replied, "Ellabelle of Brightleigh, My Lady."

There was a brief flurry of muttering from the older pages.

"_Ellabelle?_ What sort of stupid name is that?"

"Wait, isn't she…?"

"Ssh! Yes!"

"But why is…"

"_Quiet_," said Keladry, in a soft but firm voice. As the pages composed themselves, she kept her hazel eyes trained on Ella. Belying their dreamy cast, those eyes seemed suddenly very piercing. "Who will sponsor Page Brightleigh?"

There was a short pause. People were shuffling their feet and not meeting her eyes. Ella sighed and looked at the floor. She should have known something like this would happen.

"I will, Lady Keladry."

Ella's head shot up as she looked at the speaker. He was one of the tallest pages; brawny with red curly hair and sparkling grey eyes.

"Cole of Kennan," there was a note in the Training Mistress's voice that Ella could not quite work out. "You are her sponsor then."

The sandy haired page on Ella's left – Thoras of Irismere – was the last page and sponsored by his cousin; Trianne of Vikison Lake, a tall, serious looking girl.

"For now then, we will make our way to the mess hall for lunch. This afternoon and tomorrow is your chance to get to know your sponsors and your way around the Palace. The day after that, the real work begins. And note," here the Lady Knight's voice took on a more severe tone. "I will not stand for bullying. This applies to both new and existing pages. If you are attempting to haze someone, I _will_ find out about it and I _will_ punish you severely. This is your only warning. Are we clear?"

"Yes Training Mistress," the older pages muttered sullenly. The new pages just blinked at her like frightened rabbits.

"Very good," Keladry's voice became lighter. "Then let us go for lunch!"

The older pages without young ones to sponsor bundled their way down the hall to get into the queue first. The new pages were slower, walking with their sponsors who pointed things out on the way.

Ella found herself at the back, with Ryoku, Thoras and their sponsors.

"Well, new pages," said Cole cheerfully. He had a booming voice for a thirteen year old and a mischievous grin. "Are you ready for the trials ahead?"

"More than ready," Ryoku shot back. "I've been waiting for this my whole life. Papa's told me so many stories I feel like I've lived them myself! And Gerry's been teaching me some things when he comes to visit in the summer."

"Nothing useful for page training mind you," remarked Gerard. "But plenty of pranks!"

"We'd better watch ourselves then!" laughed Cole, clapping Thoras so hard on the shoulder he stumbled. The boy looked terrified.

"Cole, don't do that to my cousin, or I'll trounce you again in the training yard," glowered Trianne.

"Aw, Trinny you know that was just luck. We'll have a _real_ duel one day and I'll show you who's boss!" Cole winked at Ella. She permitted herself a small smile.

This only deepened Trianne's frown. "I don't know how you could show your face here, girl," she said, darkly. "I give it a week before the Training Mistress kicks you out."

Ella's smile died on her face. "I…I don't know what you mean…"

"Trin, leave it alone," muttered Cole.

"Why should I? Her family almost ruined any chances some of us have to be pages. Anyway, Cole, I thought you of _all_ people would think more carefully about who you sponsor."

"Cole's right, Trianne, just leave it alone. Ellabelle's not responsible for her family," snapped Gerry.

The girl snorted, her brown eyes hard. "I don't supposed why you two would care about it or course. It's not like anyone would stop either of _you_ from becoming a page. Some of us don't have that luxury. Come on Thoras, let's try and get a _decent_ seat." And with that she stormed off, dragging her cousin by his arm.

The four of them stopped and watched them go.

"What," said Ryoku. "Was _that_ all about?"

"Nothing," mumbled Ella. "It's just that I…"

"It doesn't matter," cut in Cole quickly. "It shouldn't matter. We're all in the same boat when we start here. Come on, if we don't hurry then all the decent food will be gone."

As the two older boys led the way, with Ryoku trotting between them asking questions at a hundred miles an hour, Ella dragged her feet.

_I should have seen this coming_, she thought. _Father always said the Palace was a warren for gossip. I thought people wouldn't make the connection. I was wrong. I should have known people would hold it against me._

_And the Lady Knight…what if she didn't know before but she does now? Could she throw me out? After all this time fighting to get here, could I be back home with mother's "I-told-you-so" look before I've even had my first lesson?_

"Come on slow-poke!" shouted Cole back down the corridor. "I hope you're faster on the training ground!"

Ella sighed. She would just have to wait and see.


	2. Conversations

**Thanlks to the people who reviewed the last chapter. Re-reading it after I had posted, I realised that I had made a few glaring (to me anyway) errors. I will try and rectify them as soon as possible! That will teach me to write and post something late at night!**

**Oh wait...that's what I'm doing right now! **

**Anyway, here's the next installment. And because I forgot before: any characters/places you recognise from somewhere else probably mean they belong to someone else...i.e. Tamora Pierce! **

2

As the page serving them bowed and stepped back from the platform Kel sat back and surveyed the boisterous mass of youngsters before her.

"Third year as training mistress," commented Neal, cutting up his meat. "Bored of it yet?"

Kel suppressed a wry smile. She had become infamous amongst her friends for bouncing from one assignment to the next, never allowing herself to become complacent in a job. Even New Hope, once it had been fully established as a town, she had graciously turned over to Merric as a fiefdom. There might be a day, Kel supposed, when she would be happy to settle and do one thing for the rest of her working life as a knight. Perhaps training these young warriors _was_ her vocation. She enjoyed it, there was no denying it, and found it rewarding.

"Young Ro seems to be settling in well," Kel said, changing the subject deftly. If there was one thing to divert Neal from a subject you did not want discussed, it was to mention his daughter.

"Of course she is," retorted Neal, a proud smile on his face. "She's a Queenscove!"

Kel coughed, covering a laugh. "Yes she is, though thankfully she has enough of her mother in her to make up for that fact."

It was only a vague sense of propriety in front of the pages, Kel was sure, that stopped her best friend from throwing a bread roll at her head. Instead he settled for a glare. "Remind me again why I agreed to be assigned as Palace Healer while part of it resides under your tyrannical rule?"

"Because you're such a doting father that you wanted to be as close to your beloved daughter as possible. And might I remind you, you _asked_ for the role?"

"Bah," grumbled Neal, a sheepish grin on his face. "I wasn't sure how Ro was going to react when she found out I'd be basically watching her every move. She took it quite well. I wonder if she'll feel the same in a couple of years." His gaze turned from his daughter to the other pages she was sat with. His smile became a frown. "Though I wish she was choosier about her friends."

Kel followed his gaze and sighed. "You can't blame her, Neal. They're the only girls in their year group. Even that's an improvement on last year's grand total of none."

"Hmm," Neal grunted noncommittally. "I have to say, I was very surprised when I heard the news. More so that her family allowed it in the first place."

"Ella's father is Elbert of Brightleigh – you know he's quite progressive."

"That's not who I meant."

"I know. Her grandfather's been dead for some time now. I don't think the grandmother cares about anything much these days, if gossip is to be believed."

"What about the mother?"

A small frown marred Kel's otherwise smooth features. "I'm not sure. I had the pleasure of running into her once, at one of the Midwinter Parties. Let us just say, the outcome of that meeting was not pleasant."

The two of them were silent for a bit, looking over at the two girls, sitting with their sponsors.

"Do you think she'll make it? Ella, I mean? She's so small!"

Small was not quite the word Kel would have used. The girl was _tiny_. She shrugged her shoulders "She'll grow. And she must have a drive for it, to have fought the objections of her mother – of which I'm sure were many. We'll just have to wait and see."

xxx

"Put your hand up again Ella."

The girl sighed and obliged, although she was starting to tire of this game a little.

"I can't believe how small it is!" laughed Cole in wonder. "How, in Mithros' name, are you going to be able to hold a sword?"

It was true. Measured up against the boy's broad palm, her hand looked like a baby's.

"Leave her be now Cole," said Gerry. "Ella might be small, but I reckon she's trouble. Remember Wirrell from the year above? He was small, but he sure packed a punch!"

"And the Lioness," piped up Ryoku – or "Ro" as Ella had been instructed to call her. "She's the same height as me, and at least I'm still growing!"

"But those two are both just short. Ella's small all over!"

"I am sitting here, you know," Ella remarked, a little annoyed now. "And I suppose I will just have to get a smaller sword then everyone else, won't I?"

As they finished their meals and went to clear their trays away, Ro whispered to her. "What _was_ that all about earlier? With that Trianne girl?"

Ella hesitated, unsure whether to tell her new friend the details. "It…it's quite complicated. My family…"

"Come on you two, stop dawdling. We've got a whole Palace to show you yet!" beckoned Gerry.

Grateful for the interruption, Ella flashed Ro an apologetic grin. "Look, I'll fill you in later ok? It's really nothing that important." At least, Ella hoped Ro wouldn't think it was.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of sightseeing. Dinner was much the same as lunch, although Ella became aware of more and more of the other pages giving her dirty looks – ones that promised trouble brewing.

_Why do I think Lady Keladry's rule about bullying is not as well obeyed as she thinks it is?_ thought Ella with a sigh. She wasn't totally unprepared for some hazing; but would rather just keep her head down and not be noticed. There seemed to be little chance of that happening.

It was a relief to be back in her new rooms after dinner, shutting the door on the other noisy pages – why did they need to talk _so_ loudly? – and breathing herself calm again.

Deciding to try on her new uniform to see how it fit, Ella was dismayed to learn that the seamstress's look of concern had not been unfounded. The uniforms she had been given were the very smallest they had in stock; yet the arms came way past her fingertips and the tunic well below her knees.

_I will just have to get the tailor to make adjustments and make do for now_, Ella thought determinedly, rolling up the sleeves and trying to hitch the tunic to a more suitable length. A glance in the mirror confirmed she looked like a little girl playing dress up in her big brother's clothes.

Except, Ella had no brothers. She had no siblings at all; her birth had been so hard on her mother, that Lorette was incapable of having any more children. Ella knew that her mother blamed her in some way for that. But she also knew her mother blamed people for a lot of things that were not their fault. Like Lady Keladry.

Shaking her head, Ella looked at her reflection again in the mirror, wishing it were somehow different. The girl that looked back at her drowned in the clothes she was wearing; her chin length haircut only serving to make her look more elfin than anything else.

Ella ran her hands through the silky mop of white-blonde hair, her vivid blue eyes welling up slightly. If only things could be different! If only…!

A knock on the door brought her back to her senses. She sniffed and wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "Who is it?"

"It's Ro! Let me in!"

Almost as soon as Ella had opened the door, then Ro had barged in past her. The taller girl stood, hands on hips.

"Well?" Ella said, after a moment of silence in which Ro had scrutinised her. Her normally rosy cheeks grew even pinker under the intensity of that emerald gaze.

"I know."

Ella blanched slightly. "W-what?"

"I know, Ella," repeated Ro. She raised an eyebrow. "I know who you are."


	3. Training Begins

3

"Why didn't you say?"

Ella stared at her feet, dangling off the side of the bed. She shrugged.

"I mean, it's not that big a deal."

That comment made her look up at Ro, who had deposited herself comfortably in Ella's desk chair, long legs hanging over the arm.

"Not that big a deal!" exclaimed Ella. "Do you even know what happened?"

Ro gave a crooked grin. "Of course I do. Auntie Kel and Papa have told me so many stories that I feel like I was there half the time."

"Well then…wait. _Auntie Kel_?"

Ro blushed a little. "Well…Lady Knight Keladry now I suppose. It's going to be weird to call her that now when the first memory I have of her is piggy-back rides round the nursery. My point is, if Au…Lady Keladry doesn't think it's a problem, why should anyone else?"

Ella shook her head at her new friend's naivety. "I'm not sure it works like that. People make judgements based on family. The story is very well known and…let's just say I've been here for a day and the amount of people giving me death stares has doubled in that time. News spreads quickly. I'm surprised you didn't know before."

"A conspiracy, I'll bet you. Papa probably would have told me, but Auntie Kel's not like that. She believes something good about _everyone_ she meets. It takes a lot to change her mind. She probably didn't want me to jump to conclusions."

"Like everyone else." Ella sighed. "Not everyone is like Lady Keladry. Most people make assumptions. I'm just going to have to face up to the fact that I might not have any friends here."

"_I'm _your friend," replied Ro staunchly, her green eyes serious. "And Gerry is and Cole. Papa said it was just him and Auntie Kel at the start when they were pages – he was too old and she was the first girl. Pretty much everyone disliked them. By the end of the first year they had lots of friends. People just need time."

Maybe Ro was right. Ella was starting to feel a little better. Maybe she _could_ do this. Maybe she _could_ see it through to the end and make her father proud.

And prove her mother wrong.

xxx

The dirt floor seemed to rush to meet her at an incredible speed. Ella tried to remember what the Shang Lion had said about landing on the flats of your arms, but her brain did not work as fast as gravity.

"All right?" said the Lion, hauling her to her feet and supporting her while she finished wheezing.

Ella nodded, unable to answer, while the other new pages sniggered behind her.

"Back in line then. Irismere, wipe that grin off your face. You're next."

Ella limped back into line feeling dejected. Ro gave her shoulder a friendly squeeze which, along with seeing Thoras land flat on his stomach just as she had, made her feel slightly better. Ella had convinced herself she was the worst out of all the new pages, but thinking about it only Ro had been any good at their first session of hand to hand combat.

After a few more nosedives into the dust in the training yard, Ella thought she was finally getting the hang of the proper way to fall. She managed a half-passable attempt just as the Training Mistress walked up to them.

"Very well first-years. Horseback work is next. We start with simple riding this week to make sure you are up to scratch before we start giving you anything to wield. Go and choose your mounts. They will be yours for the next four years."

The new pages scrambled eagerly for the stables, but as Ella passed the Lady Knight, she put out a hand to stop her.

"Page Brightleigh…" the woman had a slightly troubled look in her hazel eyes, although the rest of her face was totally impassive.

"Yes, My Lady?" replied Ella, bowing.

The woman folded muscular arms over her chest. "I will be blunt with you; given your circumstances I felt that it was best…"

_This is it_, thought Ella, feeling strangely removed from the situation. Her heart started to thump in her ears. _This is the part where she tells me I have to leave._

"…that we choose a horse for you."

"What?" blinked Ella. It was not what she was expecting and in her shock she forgot who she was speaking to.

Lady Keladry's only response to her lack of manners was a slight twitch of the eyebrow. "Come with me and I will explain."

The Lady Knight started towards the stables, her strides so long that Ella had to trot to keep up with her. They came to a stop in front of the last stable.

"This is Spook; although don't let his name fool you, he's one of the steadiest horses here," said Lady Keladry, rubbing between the ears of a dappled grey gelding with easy affection.

Ella held out her hand to the horse and he lipped it politely, before giving her a thorough sniff over.

"He's lovely, My Lady, but forgive me…I still don't understand."

The Training Mistress paused, as if thinking what she was going to say, while she scratched one of Spook's ears. "Spook's not quite a pony. He's a little too tall and chunky for that. But he's still small for a horse. No good for someone in full armour or who had weapons that weighed a lot, unless…"

Enlightenment struck, with mixed feelings. "Unless that person was about my size."

A kind smile lit up the face of the tall woman standing before her. "You'd be doing us a favour to be honest. Spook's previous owner was a Rider, killed in action. He's just been hanging around, doing odd jobs and they were thinking of selling him off at the next market. He's in his prime and a calm, unshakeable character – perfect for a knight in training."

It occurred to Ella, as she stroked the horse's neck, that Lady Keladry _was_ indeed a rarity. She did not have to explain herself. She could have just ordered Ella to take the horse and been perfectly within her rights to. The fact she had gone out of her way in the first place to find a mount that was small enough for Ella to handle hardened the girl's resolve. When she thought Keladry was a legendary figure, saving lives and riding into battle, Ella had wanted nothing more than to be like her. Learning such a strong and fierce woman also had a gentle heart humbled her.

Even if it was tough, even if Ella had to fight for every second, she would make it through.

Ella returned the smile. "He's perfect My Lady. I can't thank you enough."

"Well then," replied the Lady Knight, giving her a clap on the shoulder. "Tack him up and bring him to the yard. Let's see how well you can manage him."

Grooms helped Ella find what she needed and, within no time, she was mounted and walking her new charge round a training ring, behind the ample rump of Ro's new horse, Duty. Looking around at the other new pages, Ella saw why an exception had been made for her. They were all sizeable destriers. It would be like sitting on top of a mountain for her – even some of the other pages looked dwarfed. And they were war horses, restless and fighting the bit. Ella would have had her work cut out controlling one.

Spook on the other hand behaved like the perfect gentleman; he did everything that was asked of him willingly and with only the lightest touch. Ella was a good rider – long hours out on her pony at home meant less time spent with her mother – and the lesson was actually the first real enjoyable part of her training so far.

Her new happiness was short lived. As she was brushing Spook down, a shadow fell over her. Ella raised her head to see Trianne, with another girl page from the third year – Hannett of King's Reach.

"See what I mean Han?" commented Trianne. "They're just humouring her. Won't even trust her with a _real_ horse."

Hannett snorted. "I'd be embarrassed to be seen on that! Your sword would drag on the ground."

Ella scowled. "If you've got something to say to me, spit it out. Otherwise, leave me alone."

"Oooh…_leave me alone_," whined Hannett in a mocking high pitched voice. "What's the matter Shrimp? Not ready to play with the big girls yet?"

"Where's your dolly? Did you leave it in your room with your blankie?" Trianne simpered.

"Look," said Ella, trying to sound calm and forceful. She squared up to them. "I know what your issue is with me. I can't help who I come from. But I'm not the same. Why would I be here otherwise?"

"I have no idea what went on in that pretty little head of yours," replied Trianne, suddenly looking quite menacing. "But an apple from a bad tree is bound to be as rotten. Just watch yourself Titch, all right?" And the older girl gave her a hard shove, so that Ella fell back into a bucket of horse feed.

Laughing as she struggled to get to her feet, the two girls started to walk away. Recovering herself, Ella ran to the stable door and shouted after them, "Just leave me alone! Or I'll…"

"What?" called back Trianne, turning to look over her shoulder. "You'll report me to Lady Keladry? Then everyone will know you for a grass!"

"No, she won't do that!" put in Hannett, loud enough for everyone else to hear – pages were poking curious heads over stable doors. "She'll pay some men to have you kidnapped and put you at the top of Balor's Needle. That's more her style."

"Really, she can't see we're trying to do her a favour," added Trianne in an even louder voice. "She's better off quitting now, than waiting for the Chamber of the Ordeal to decide for her. Don't want the same thing happening to poor little Ellabelle that happened to Uncle Joren now do we?"

And with a last satisfied smirk, the older girls vanished around the corner.


	4. Conservative Scum

4

A note shuffled into her eye-line, pushed there surreptitiously by Ro.

_Don't let them get to you, it's not worth it._

Ella tucked it carefully out of sight while the Mithran priest's back was turned as he wrote on the board. She snuck a glance over to where Trianne and Hannett sat a few rows away. They caught her eye and Trianne whispered something to the other girl, who sniggered.

With a sigh Ella turned her eyes away, determined to ignore them. Ro was right. They only had power over her if she let it. The best thing she could do was ignore them.

Ro was looking at her with such worry in her green eyes that Ella had to smile at her.

"Page Brightleigh! Would you care to enlighten us as to what is so amusing?"

The barked command startled her. Ella looked up to see Master Reynar, their teacher of reading and writing, glaring down at her.

She stood, nearly pushing her chair over in her haste to get to her feet. "N-nothing, Sir," she stammered, feeling her face starting to heat at the thought of being told off on her very first afternoon.

The grey haired priest tapped his foot irritably. "Clearly, Page Brightleigh, it was not 'nothing'. No excuses."

Ella was lost for words. She didn't want to get Ro in trouble, but neither did she want to lie.

"Please, Sir." Ella turned to see Ro had got to her feet. "I was distracting Ella. I'm sorry."

The priest's frown only deepened. "Be that as it may, Page Queenscove, a knight must learn to control themselves despite distractions. I will have a two-page essay from the both of you on self-discipline by tomorrow. Now sit and let us continue."

It was terribly unfair, but there was nothing Ella could do about it. A knight did not complain or whinge. They accepted what was handed to them.

_Doesn't mean I have to like it though_, she thought to herself. _I wish Ro had kept quiet though. It's bad enough I get punishment work, now she's got it because of me. On our first lesson as well. She'll hate me too, now._

Ignoring the sniggers from Trianne and Hannett as they exited the classroom at the end of the lesson; Ella was instead too preoccupied with dreading her new friend's reaction as they walked from that class to their next one.

"Trying to beat the record for punishment work girls?" boomed Cole, coming up behind them and slinging a large arm round each of their shoulders.

Ro laughed. "My father was the one who _set_ the record for quickest punishment work – I think he managed to get some before the term had even started properly. I'm seriously slacking in upholding the Queenscove reputation!"

"He'll be devastated I'm sure," drawled Gerry, walking beside them. "Still, I'm not surprised. Dom always said Cousin Neal could never keep his tongue under control."

"My father said the same thing about them when they were pages. Apparently Sir Nealan was always getting into trouble with Lord Wyldon," commented Cole.

"He still does," said Ro, dryly.

Though she felt slightly better about the punishment work, Ella was feeling distinctly out of place. Her friends all had something in common with each other. She was the only one who didn't have a story to tell…or rather, one that she wanted to share.

Ro must have noticed her demeanour. "Never mind though Ella. Shall we meet tonight and do that stupid essay together? Two brains are better than one."

Ella forced a smile. "That would be nice. I am sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry for. It was my fault really," Ro grinned back.

"By the way," Cole said, suddenly turning serious. "What was that all about in the stables earlier, with you and Trinny? Someone said you'd had a row."

"Oh," Ella shook her head. "It was nothing, really." She looked sideways at Ro, to see if the other girl would say anything. To her relief, she kept quiet.

Cole wasn't easily convinced, however. "Look, if she gives you grief over…you know, family issues, let me know. Trin's all right really, but she can be a bit of a cow when someone does something she doesn't like. And Hannett…she's just a bitch really."

That startled a laugh out of her. "I had noticed," Ella replied when she had recovered herself. "It's fine, I'm just trying to ignore them. Hopefully they'll get sick of it before long."

The rest of the day dragged. By the time lessons were over and it was time to clean up for dinner, Ella ached from the morning's physical training and had a headache from all the academic information she'd had thrown at her.

"I'll come and knock for you when the dinner bell goes," said Ro, waving as she entered her room.

Ella nodded, feeling like all she really wanted to do was crawl into bed and stay there for a week. Instead she used the hot water the servants had left for her to wash up and changed out of the overly large page's uniform into her own, comfortable, shirt and breeches.

She was about to sit down to finish a letter to her father, when there was a knock at the door.

_Ro must have decided to come by early_, Ella thought, heaving herself out of the chair to open the door.

"Mind if we come in?" Hannett didn't wait for a reply, but barged her way past Ella into the room. Trianne followed and shut the door, leaning on it.

"Wh…what…what do you want?" stammered Ella, feeling the hackles on the back of her neck start to rise. This couldn't be good.

"That's not very nice, is it Trin?" Hannett said, walking round the room, running her fingers lightly over surfaces and picking up Ella's keepsakes as she did.

Trianne folded her arms and grinned, her brown eyes glinting with cruel amusement. "Not very nice at all, Han."

Ella was at a loss. She simply stood there, tensed for one of them to do something, glancing between the two of them.

Hannett finally stopped her wanderings and stood squarely in front of Ella. She was not as tall as Trianne, but still towered over Ella. Her face was stunningly pretty, Ella noted, and her thick dark hair was swept back into a high ponytail.

"You're such a little thing," Hannett said, poking Ella in the forehead with a bony finger. "How can such a little thing like you ever expect to be a knight?"

Ella resisted the urge to rub her forehead and settled for a glare instead. "Alanna the Lioness is small…"

"Short," correct Trianne, who had moved away from the door to stand closer. "The Lioness is short, not small. We know, we've seen her. Have you even seen her, Shrimp?"

"Course she hasn't," scoffed Hannett before Ella could reply. "The Lioness wouldn't be seen dead around Stone Mountain spawn."

"I'm not of Stone Mountain," said Ella, defensively. She had started backing away without realising it. The two older girls closed the gap. "I'm a Brightleigh."

"Only half," Trianne said; a sneer on her plain features. "The other half is rotten through and through. Conservative scum."

The backs of Ella's knees hit her desk chair and she folded into it, the girls looming over her.

Suddenly a hand was in her hair, yanking her head back painfully. Ella yelped and raised her hands to try and pull the hair-puller away, but a hard slap to her face made her fall still.

It was Trianne who had hold of her hair and she pushed her face close to Ella's. "You really need to reconsider your decision to be here, little Shrimp. It wouldn't be good if something happened to that pretty little face of yours, would it? You're going to need it when you get married to a great lord like the good little conservative you are."

"Aw…Trin, I think she's going to cry!" chuckled Hannett.

"Are you going to cry little Shrimp?"

Ella was. She was in pain and she was frightened. These two girls were not just older and stronger, but warriors in training. If they really wanted to hurt her, they would.

"Hey! Leave her alone!"

The new voice made all of them start. Trianne let go her hold on Ella's hair as she and Hannett turned to the door.

Ro was standing there, looking furious.

"Queenscove's girl. What do you want?" said Hannett.

"What I just said, thicko. Leave Ella alone!"

Hannett laughed as Trianne shook her head. "Oh dear. Are you going to run to tell daddy or maybe Auntie Keladry if we don't? Snitch."

"No…I'm going to do this instead." And before Ella could even blink, Ro dove forward onto her hands and flipped, kicking out at the older girls as she did.

Trianne was quick enough to get out of the way, but Hannett was not so lucky. The startled look was still on her face as Ro's foot connected with it.

As her friend crumpled to the floor, holding a bleeding nose, Trianne snapped herself out of her stunned trance and, with a snarl, lunged at Ro.

Ella watched in awe as her friend blocked the first punch with relative ease. But Trianne was taller and stronger; the second blow found its mark in Ro's stomach. The girl exhaled with a grunt, dropping to her knees.

It was enough. Tears still drying on her cheeks, Ella clambered onto the chair and launched herself onto Trianne's back, wrapping one arm around her neck and slapping at her head with the other. Trianne had either forgotten about her or had thought her not worthy of keeping an eye on, because she yelled with surprise and flailed ineffectively.

Ro, meanwhile, had recovered herself enough to clamber to her feet – not too soon it transpired as an angry and bleeding Hannett directed an angry kick in her direction.

The next few moments descended into madness, until the next thing Ella knew, she was lying flat on her back, panting, her right eye hurting sharply where one of Trianne's madly waving hands had caught it.

"For gods' sake Trin, calm down!" Cole's voice drifted through to Ella. _When had he come in?_ she wondered, dazedly. She pushed herself up on her elbows to see him gripping a scarlet faced Trianne by the upper arms, stopping her from rushing forward at Ella. Turning her neck and wincing as she did so – she must have been thrown off Trianne's back at some point – Ella saw Gerry was also in the room, holding onto Ro, as another page was clinging onto a thrashing Hannett.

A quick glance at the door told Ella they had gathered an audience. At the front of the group of shocked boys was the only other female page; Merienna of Sweetspring, Ella remembered someone saying. A fourth year page, she was a quiet girl who didn't seem to sit with anyone at meals. In fact, Ella could not recall having heard her speak at all in the few days she had been here. Merienna was large – taller than many of the boys and as broad as most – and unfortunately masculine in appearance. Whereas Lady Keladry was big, her face was at least feminine. Merienna's was square jawed with an overly large nose, dotted with a large number of pimples. Her wispy brown hair was tied away from her face and her small eyes were a colourless grey.

"And there are still some people who say girls can't fight," Merienna remarked, in a curiously soft voice. "Wish they'd been here to see this. Who knows what they would have thought." Shaking her head sadly, she turned and pushed her way through the gaggle of boys behind her.


	5. Questions and Answers

**Hello lovely readers!**

**Big thanks to "idleness" who reviewed this chapter for me and pointed out a few things. I have now re-uploaded it with a couple of mini-changes to hopefully make it read better.**

**Thanks and hope you enjoy!**

5

The wisps of grey in the woman's mousy hair came as a surprise to Ella. From this new angle, the Lady Knight looked older than she had at first. There were fine lines around the corners of her eyes, despite being only in her early thirties, and several small scars on her face.

_Mother is the same age_, Ella thought, surprising herself with that fact, _I remember Papa saying._

The thought of her dazzlingly beautiful mother standing in the same room as the worn-looking Keladry of Mindelan crept into Ella's mind and wouldn't budge. She could hear the scathing words her mother would say about the knight's appearance. She could imagine her smoothing down the material on her elegant silk dress, looking pityingly at the plain material of the tunic Lady Keladry wore; brushing her fingers over her own smooth, unmarked cheek. _Is this what you want? _she would say. _Is this what you _really_ want to be like? When you could have all this instead?_

"Well, ladies," the smooth voice of the Lady Knight broke through the shrill accusations of her mother. "Can either of you explain what happened?"

Ella swallowed nervously and glanced up at Ro, who was standing stock still and straight, despite the obvious pain she was in. The other girl's eyes were fixed solidly on the wall just over Lady Keladry's shoulder.

"We had a…disagreement, My Lady. It got out of hand," answered Ro, her voice steady.

"I see. Page Brightleigh? Anything to add?"

Nervously, Ella turned her gaze back into the searching hazel eyes. The Lady Knight leant forward in her chair and folded her big, scarred hands on top of her desk.

"Well? This did take place in your chambers. What started it?"

Ella couldn't hold her gaze. Miserably, she dropped her eyes to stare at the flagstones beneath her feet. "It…as Ro…as Ryoku said, My Lady. It was a…a disagreement. I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

A deep sigh from the woman made her timidly raise her eyes. Lady Keladry leant back in her chair. "As much time as I've spent around pages, you think I would be used to fights. I don't know if I just expected different from you because…" She trailed off, leaving the sentence hanging in the air. There was a moment of silence, in which Ella felt more and more uncomfortable. Finally, the Lady Knight broke it. "Brightleigh, you are dismissed. Report at the first bell for the next three Sunday mornings, for your punishment work of mucking out the stables. Queenscove…a word, if you will."

xxx

Kel watched the tiny girl leave the room with mixed feelings. Ella had looked so small and vulnerable, a livid bruise swelling up her right eye, that it was all Kel could do not to pull her into a hug and comfort her. Only, a training mistress just didn't _do_ that. Not to a knight in training.

She shook her head and turned her attention to her gods-daughter. "Ro…what really happened?"

Ryoku's stance didn't change, but her green eyes – the shape of Yuki's but the colour of Neal's – met hers squarely. "Am I talking to Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan now, or Auntie Kel?"

Gods, the girl was so much like her father. "Does it make a difference?"

Ro nodded.

Kel couldn't help but smile. "Auntie Kel, then. For a moment."

There was still no relaxation in Ro's posture. "And do Auntie Kel and the Lady Knight share gossip?"

"For Mithros' sake…_no_ Ryoku, they don't. But sometimes Auntie Kel advises the Lady Knight if she thinks there is a serious problem at hand. Of course, the Lady Knight is sensible enough to know how being a page works and to deal with the problem sensitively. Satisfied?"

It took a while for this information to catch up with itself in Ro's head. She may be Neal's daughter, Kel reminded herself, but she is only ten years old, after all.

"Fine," said Ro, finally slumping and rubbing her side with a grimace. "I think that Trianne girl might have broken one of my ribs. Can I have permission to go and see father after this?"

"Yes, all right!" replied Kel, feeling herself becoming impatient. She had never known anyone to dance around an issue as much as…no, wait, of course she did. "But back to what I was saying. Will you tell me what _really_ happened?"

"They're bullying her," answered Ro, bluntly. "They've got it into their heads that just because Ella's uncle was Joren and with what he did to you…and that the Stone Mountain family are conservative, she deserves to be picked on."

"What?" Kel blinked. She knew that the Brightleigh girl might cause some tongues to wag but…a girl from a conservative background being picked on by _progressives?_ The idea was absurd.

Or was it? Children would be children – pages had hazed each other from time immemorial. Even though she had taken great pains to make sure she caught all signs of bullying early on, Kel was no fool to think it didn't still go on in ways she didn't know about.

And Ella was an easy target. She was small and unconfident and incredibly pretty. It was easy to see how other girls could become spiteful, using her family's past as an excuse to make themselves feel better about their own uncertainties in their awkwardly growing bodies. Just because they were girls didn't make them automatically nicer than the boys. In fact, Kel knew from experience that girls could be worse – or at least more imaginative – when it came to picking on others.

Trianne of Vikison Lake had always been an over-serious girl. She was the youngest daughter in her family, who were uncertain about letting her become a knight. Rumours were, and Kel was sure Trianne had heard these time and time again, that her parents had only let her because they were worried she would need a large dowry in order to gain a husband. The real reason for this was Vikison Lake was not a rich fiefdom, but Kel knew that because Trianne was plain – quite tall, ordinary brown hair, ordinary brown eyes, nothing remarkable about her at all – she would assume it was her looks.

Kel could sympathise. They shared a lot in common. But, unlike Kel, Trianne had found a friend in Hannett of King's Reach – the only other girl in the third year. Hannett was everything Trianne was not. She was beautiful, retaining a willowy grace even as she gained the musculature that knighthood training required. She was the oldest daughter of a very progressive, rich family, and had sailed into being a page with ease.

It was a mystery to Kel, then, why Hannett had such a hideous attitude. She was cocky and arrogant. Even when Kel had brought the two older girls in first to discuss the fight, Hannett was more concerned about the fact her nose might be broken and crooked, demanding to see a healer.

"Be grateful," Kel had said sternly, barely keeping her temper in check. "That we have healers so readily available in the Palace. One day you will be out in the field without such a luxury. Let us hope your looks are not so important to you then."

She had spoken to Faleron, one of her oldest friends, about his eldest daughter. He had shaken his head. "I don't know why she's like it. She acts that way at home too. We're hoping it's a phase she's going through, part of growing up," he'd smiled sadly. "She's a good girl at heart. I know I would say that, I'm her father, but she is. I think she's just confused. This whole being a knight business…I'm not sure it's what she really wanted. I don't think she knows what she wants, but she's too stubborn to admit it."

"Auntie Kel?"

Ro's voice broke through her thoughts, and Kel realised she had been silent a long time, thinking things over. "So…what do you think I should do about this then?"

The question took Ro aback. She blinked at her gods-mother for a bit. "What do I…? I don't know. You're the adult. But…if you do something they'll know one of us told you and we'll be seen as tell-tales. If you do nothing, well, we'll just keep getting into fights."

"We?" asked Kel, with a smile.

"I'm not going to stand back and let them pick on her," said Ro, lifting her chin. "You understand; you're the Protector of the Small. You and Papa taught me to always stand up for those who can't."

Kel winced inwardly at the use of her unofficial title. "I can't deny that. So, I will keep an eye on things and maybe give a general talk to _all_ the pages about hazing again. They're used to them, we've been over it before, but it might give them a gentle reminder."

"I guess that's ok. Can I go now?"

Rolling her eyes, Kel smiled and then smoothed all expression from her face. "Very well Page Queenscove, report to the healers' wing to attend to that broken rib. And don't forget you also have punishment work in the stables for the next three Sunday mornings. Dismissed."

It nearly made her chuckle to see Ro so taken aback at the sudden switch from Auntie Kel to the Lady Knight, but the girl recovered herself quickly, bowed with a wince and left the room.

Kel leant back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. She had been given a lot to think about.

xxx

"By the gods, girl. You're here for one full day's worth of training, _one day,_ and already you're getting into fights."

"Papa, you don't understand, they were…_ouch_!"

"Serves you right," said Sir Nealan of Queenscove, looking sternly at his daughter over the top of his wire rimmed spectacles. "Maybe next time you'll remember this pain and think twice about launching yourself into fights where your opponents are bigger and stronger than you."

Ro sighed and winked at Ella.

Ella didn't return it. She had gone with Ro to the healers' wing, horrified that because of her, her new friend had been injured. Ro had brushed off her concern.

"It's only a cracked rib Ella. Papa will have it sorted in a jiffy. Besides, we're going to be getting a lot worse than this when we are finally knights."

She was right, but it didn't stop Ella from feeling horribly guilty.

"There we are, good as new!" said Sir Nealan, finally pulling down his daughter's shirt and planting a big kiss on her forehead.

"_Papa!_"

"What? You're too big and important now you're a page to love your father? Is that it?" he cried, putting his hands to his cheeks in a passable impression of a Player acting out a high drama.

Ro giggled. "How is it the older I get, the sillier you get?"

"I think you just notice it more," shrugged Sir Nealan. He turned his gaze to Ella and beckoned with a finger. "Your turn, young lady."

"W-what?" choked Ella, horrified for one second that she was about to be kissed by Ro's father.

Ro noticed her expression and laughed even harder. "For healing, silly." She slid off the bench and patted it.

"Oh…no I'm fine…Lady Keladry didn't send me here, I just came with Ro…"

Sir Nealan raised his beautifully arched eyebrow at her. "By tomorrow morning that eye of yours is going to be so swollen you won't be able to see out of it. It will make training doubly hard and trust me, it's hard enough as it is. I remember."

Mortified, Ella walked over to the bench wondering, as she got closer, how on earth she was going to climb up onto it.

"Erm…is there a box, or something I can stand on to…?"

"Oh dear, hang on a tick." Without warning two large hands were thrust under her armpits and Ella found herself being swung up into the air and deposited on the bench.

"_Papa!_"

"What'd I do now?" exclaimed Sir Nealan, looking at Ro, who was standing there with her hands on her hips, shaking her head.

Even Ella had to laugh at the expression on his face. "It's ok. Thank you, Sir."

He winked at her, looking very much like his daughter for a second, before placing a glowing green hand over Ella's eye. A cool relief spread through her aching face, and the skin felt looser as the swelling went down.

"You'll still be quite colourful for the next few days as the bruising works its way out, but it won't swell up quite so much," commented Sir Nealan, as he finished up. "Need a hand down?"

"I think I can manage, thank you." Ella dropped to the floor, bending her knees to take the impact.

"You two had better get off, it's late."

"Oh and we still have that essay to do," said Ro, pulling a face. "We'll never get it done."

"More punishment work?" Sir Nealan shook his head. "Mithros, talk about upholding family tradition!"

As the girls walked to the door, he added, "And I don't even get a hug for my troubles. What is this world coming to?"

Ro sighed, but smiled, as she turned on her heel and ran to her father, throwing her arms around his waist. Ella lingered, half out the door, trying to give them some privacy while being torn apart inside by homesickness for her own father.

"Your mother would be so proud of you, you know that, right?" said Sir Nealan, so softly Ella barely caught it.

"I hope so," mumbled Ro, into her father's tunic. "I wish she was still here."

"Me too, poppet," sighed her father, stroking her hair. "Me too."

Ro broke away from her father and left the room. Ella moved aside to let her past and trotted to keep up with her quickly striding friend, pretending not to notice the couple of tears that leaked down her cheeks.

**A.N: I hope my interpretation of Kel is not too off the mark. I've read so many fanfictions where I just don't recognise who they're talking about. I don't think she would be the sort of woman to worry about changing what she looks like. And I think since she mainly took after her father in appearance she would probably get away without going totally white-haired so early. As for how she acts...well Kel always struck me as a real "mumsy" person underneath all her warrior's traits. **

**As for Yuki...well you'll just have to keep reading to find out ;o)**


	6. Friendship

**Sorry readers, it has been a while. This next chapter is not particularly exciting, but I think important in showing growing friendships. Enjoy! The next one will be a little more action-packed maybe.**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise as belonging to Tamora Pierce.**

6

Her arms were burning and her throat was tight with dust. Sweat trickled down her neck to pool in the hollow of her collarbones.

"Need a drink, ladies?" Gerry's unmistakeable tones floated down to her.

Ella straightened with a grimace, leaning on her pitchfork. "Like you wouldn't believe."

"I am starting to think," put in Ro, sitting heavily in the pile of clean straw she had just carried in, "that in order to be someone who trains future knights of the realm, you need a real sadistic streak."

Cole's ginger locks popped up next to Gerry over the top of the stable partition. He grinned. "This is nothing. When me and Gerry hid slugs in Master Reynar's desk drawer, she made us do ten laps of the curtain wall and _then_ write a letter of apology to him."

"And you know she'd correct you with 'Gerry and I'…and then make you write it out fifty times. So really, you two have got off lightly," commented Gerry. "Catch."

Ro reached out to grab the flask of water as it flew towards her. "I never knew Auntie Kel had such a mean side. She must have learnt it from Lord Wyldon." Ro took a deep drink and sighed. "Sir Gerard, we are in your debt indeed, we two fair maidens enslaved by the evil of knighthood."

Ella chuckled as she took the flask from Ro. In truth, mucking out the stables on such a warm autumn's day _was_ hard work, but she was quite glad of it. It gave her the opportunity to be out of the main Palace, away from the other pages. Trianne and Hannett had not really acknowledged her since the incident, but that only made Ella more uneasy. She was sure they were planning something. And the number of pages who would even give her a civil nod had dwindled to Gerry, Cole and Ro. Everyone else was avoiding her like the plague – something Ella was sure the older girls were responsible for. Still, if there was something the fight had made her grateful for, it was the cemented friendship between herself and Ryoku.

The boys wandered off, leaving Ella and Ro to finish their afternoon's work. The time dragged, until finally the stables were spotless and the horses all settled back into their stalls.

"Just think…we get to do this all again next Sunday. And the Sunday after that. Aren't we _so_ lucky?"

Patting Spook on the neck and giving him a piece of apple as a treat, Ella grinned at her friend, who had slithered down the stable door to sit on the floor. Ella collapsed in a heap next to her.

"I can't believe we've been here only a week. It feels like a lifetime!"

Ella nodded her agreement, absent-mindedly playing with a piece of straw. There had been something playing on her mind for a while now; something she hadn't felt comfortable bringing up before.

"Ro…" Ella began, not sure if she should even be asking such questions. "The other day, when we saw your father…"

"Mmmhmmm…" murmured Ro, leaning her head back against the door and closing her eyes.

"Something he said made me wonder…where…where's your mother?"

Ro suddenly became very still. She opened her eyes slowly, looking straight ahead and not at Ella.

"I…I'm sorry," stuttered Ella. "I shouldn't have…it's none of my business, forget I asked…"

"No, it's okay," replied Ro, very softly. She drew her legs up to her chest and hugged them, resting her chin on her knees. "When I was five, Mama was having another baby. Papa said it was going to be a boy, a little brother for me. They were both so excited. But something went wrong. Something with the baby and…" Ro swallowed thickly before continuing. "Papa blamed himself; he said he should have realised something wasn't right. For a whole year he essentially hid himself away in his study. I still don't know what he was hoping to achieve. Auntie Kel stepped in to take care of me – of both of us. She finally made him see that what he was doing wasn't going to bring Mama back. He's pretty much back to normal now, he can even talk about her sometimes, but…once a year he still goes and hides for a while. That's his way of coping with it, I think."

Ella didn't know what to say. She had never known loss like that in her life. "I'm sorry, I didn't think. I thought she might be in the Yamani Islands or something. You must miss her a lot."

Ro smiled sadly. "I do. It's more than that…Papa doesn't want to visit the Islands. There are too many memories for him. So I'm missing out on half of myself…does that sound strange? My mother's people; their culture."

"It doesn't sound strange at all."

"Luckily Auntie Kel has taught me a lot about it, so if I ever get to go, I won't be _too_ clueless."

Ella blinked. "How would Lady Keladry know?"

"She lived in the Yamani Islands when she was little, didn't you know that?" Ro raised her eyebrows. "Her father used to be an ambassador. That's how my parents met; Mama was an old childhood friend of Auntie Kel and they were reunited when Mama came over with Princess Shinkokami. Auntie's lost a lot of her Yamani traits now; she's been back in Tortall since she was our age, but there's some of the culture she still remembers."

"Is that how you learnt to fight like you did the other day? Is that Yamani fighting?"

Ro grinned wickedly. "It's handy having a gods-mother like Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan."

There was a brief pause. Ella was lost in thought, her brain whirring with all the new information she had just been given, when Ro cut through her musings.

"What about your family then?"

Ella wrinkled her nose. "Do we really have to go into that?"

"Come on, I shared my story of woe with you. Play fair."

Sighing, but resigned, Ella shifted her weight into a more comfortable position. "Fine. I'm an only child too. It's just me, Papa and my mother."

"How comes?" Ro looked confused and Ella knew why. All noble families, conservative or not, had one main aim in life – to have as many heirs to their estate as possible, boys in particular. To stop a family at one girl was not the done thing.

"When I was born, something happened to Mother. She can't have any more children. It…it doesn't help with…." How could she explain this to Ro, who had known nothing but love her whole life and had lost her own precious mother? "Mother and I have never seen eye-to-eye. I think she blames me for what happened. She sees herself as a failure; she can't do what a proper noble wife is supposed to do."

Ro looked horrified. "But that's not your fault! How can she blame you?"

Ella shrugged. "That whole side of the family are the same. Grandfather, before he died, always used to make comments when he came to visit, about my uncles and aunts who were busy having more and more babies. And about Joren – the way he used to speak about him…"

"I've heard a bit about him, but never anything good, especially from Papa."

"The way Grandfather used to speak about him, you would think he was some sort of tragic hero who died fighting for the good of the realm. He always used to say 'This kingdom is going to the dogs. Wenches fighting and peasants reading. What good will come of destroying the natural order?'"

Ro laughed nervously at Ella's impression of her grandfather. "That was scarily good. You sounded a bit like Master Reynar when he's cross."

Ella grinned and then turned serious again. "Thankfully, a lot of my Brightleigh cousins were always around. The first time I heard about Lady Keladry was from my older cousin Yanis – he left his page training last year and was always going on about her, even before he'd met her. The stories he would tell…oh Ro, it made me feel so excited to think that there were actually people out there doing such things. I couldn't see how such a person could be evil – not the way Mother and Grandfather painted her. After Grandfather died, I saw my Stone Mountain relatives less and less. It made me think there could be a chance to be a knight. I'm lucky; Papa's always been a progressive. I think the only reason they let Mother marry him is because she's a younger daughter and Brightleigh is a wealthy fief."

"And so he let you go for your page training?"

Ella nodded, thinking about her father. "I miss him. Papa's always stood up for me, especially against Mother when she gets on one of her 'Ella is destroying the Stone Mountain name' rants. He understands I don't want to be trapped like he and Mother are, in a relationship neither of them wanted. That I want to make something of myself."

They were both silent for a bit, lost in thought.

Ro broke the silence. "I wanted to be a knight because it's the only thing I've ever known. Papa's a knight. Auntie Kel's a knight. What else could I be?"

"A healer like your father?" asked Ella, cocking her head to one side.

"You forget, silly, I don't have the Gift like he does. Otherwise I might have liked that. I think he would have too…he's never been over keen on the idea of me trying for my knighthood." Ro grinned wickedly. "Thankfully I think he realised he had no say in the matter. That's why he took the Healer post here though – to keep an eye on me. He denies it, but I know."

"I wish my father worked at the Palace," said Ella sadly.

Ro smiled. "Well, mine will look out for you I'm sure, in his place."

Ella returned the grin. "Thanks. I'm glad you're here Ro."

"I'm glad you're here too."


	7. On Thin Ice

**A nice long chapter for you lovely readers. I hope you enjoy it.**

**Something I should have mentioned earlier - taking advice of my wonderful reviewers, I have changed Gerry to being Dom's nephew, not his younger brother. It would be a bit of a push - clearly my mathematic skills are not what they once were.**

**Anyway - I own nothing you recognise as being Tamora Pierce's. The rest is all mine!**

_7_

_Midwinter_

Ella woke up one at the sound of the morning bell, to find the light flooding her room looked somehow different.

She groaned, burrowing down into the warm nest of her blankets, denying the fact that she _really_ should be getting up and preparing for her upcoming role in the Midwinter celebrations taking place that day. The pages had time off from normal duties over the holiday, but that did not mean they could simply laze about.

A perfunctory knock sounded on her door, before the irritatingly cheerful maid who dealt with Ella's room let herself in, whistling.

"Morning Miss! Hope you slept alright!" Milly seemed to end every sentence she spoke with an exclamation, as if she couldn't believe her luck at cleaning up after Tortall's young knights in training. Ella found it annoying beyond belief, but disliking the plump young woman was akin to disliking a fluffy bunny rabbit.

Ella reasoned, however, that bunny rabbits were generally a lot quieter about their daily business. She had learnt quickly that, even on days off, any chance of a lie-in was scuppered as soon as Milly started cleaning. Her chores were accompanied by the same volume of noise a stampeding herd of war horses would make.

"Don't blame you for still being in bed Miss!" commented Milly, oblivious to the fact Ella was trying to physically push her head through her pillow, in a vain attempt to block out the vigorous clattering of the fire being stoked. "Have you seen outside? We was speaking this morning and ain't seen nothing like it for about three years now!"

Giving up, Ella reluctantly pushed her covers off, shivering, and stood on the bed, peering out the small window.

She was greeted by a sea of white, sparkling in the weak winter sun that was trying fruitlessly to force its way through the bank of iron grey clouds. Some of the drifts looked to be several feet deep.

Over the din of Milly filling Ella's bowl of washing water, a thundering of feet outside heralded the arrival of Ro, Cole and Gerry.

"Get dressed lazy bones!" Ro's grin was so big it threatened to split her face in two. "It _snowed!_"

xxx

Half an hour later, Ella found herself crouched behind a low wall in one of the Palace's ornamental gardens. She poked a cautious head above her hiding place.

"Get down!" whispered Cole, muffled behind his thick scarf. "I think I can hear them coming."

Ella's ears caught the sound of hushed giggling and crunching footsteps. The cold was starting to seep through her leather gloves, but she ignored the bite in the ends of her fingertips.

When the footsteps drew closer, Ella snuck a glance at Cole. He was counting backwards under his breath, clouds forming in the air before his mouth.

When he reached zero, the two of them pounced, flinging handfuls of snow at their victims.

When the shrieking had died down – mainly on Gerry's part, which made Ella laugh so hard her nose started running – and revenge had been taken in the form of Ro stuffing snow down the back of Cole's jacket, the four of them decided that it was probably time to make their way back inside.

"I think Master Oakbridge wanted to go over the table plan for us again after lunch," commented Gerry, shaking the last of the snow out of his dark hair.

"For about the thousandth time!" Cole's ruddy cheeks were glowing with the cold. "I swear I've started dreaming about that table plan and we haven't even served anyone yet!"

Ro winked at Ella. As first year pages, the two of them would be working in the kitchen, handing plates of food to the older pages. Unfortunately this put them directly under the eye of cantankerous Master Oakbridge, the elderly Master of Ceremonies.

"Honestly," Ro had said to her the other day. "He was old when my father was here. Papa always said he doesn't know how that man hasn't died of a heart attack yet. He seems to thrive on stress."

As they walked through the gardens, the noise of several young voices drew their attention. The boys, good intentions of drying off before lunch forgotten, drifted towards the excited sounds. Ro and Ella trailed after them.

Behind one of the tall hedges stood a large pond. Ella had seen it in autumn; with the huge koi carp that swum in lazy circles on the surface. Now it was a glittering mirror, dusted with snow.

Some of the older pages were there, daring each other to slide as far as they could across the slippery ice. Gerry and Cole dashed forward to join in the fun, while Ella and Ro hung back uncertainly.

It had been tense for a while after the fight, but since then the silent treatment Ella – and Ro by association – had been subjected to had eased off. Most of the other pages at least deigned to acknowledge her now, although Trianne and Hannett still loftily ignored her, sniggering at times when they were near for no apparent reason. Ella was still wary of them, but the passage of time made her think that maybe the girls' taste for bullying had eased off a bit as the work the pages were expected to do escalated.

Ella had also noticed the increasing presence of Merienna of Sweetspring. The big girl did not speak to Ella or her friends, but she always seemed to be around whenever Trianne or Hannett were. Merienna was one of the best pages in hand to hand combat; she simply flattened any pages sent up against her. Ella was sure that she owed the older girl some kind of debt, but was too nervous to approach her to give her thanks.

Merienna was here now, as usual not joining in the rambunctious antics of the group of fourth and third-year pages, but watching the scene with her impassive, slightly disdainful expression.

Trianne and Hannett were also part of the group; they were the ones who were shrieking the loudest and hurling themselves the furthest on the ice.

Spotting them, Ella tugged Ro's sleeve and muttered, "We should go inside to get ready."

Ro followed her gaze and nodded. But instead of turning to leave, she looked back at Gerry and Cole who were starting their own slides out onto the surface of the pond. Ro's forehead creased with worry. "That's so dangerous. Don't they realise how deep it is?"

"They're big boys, Ro, they can take care of themselves. Let's go, I'm freezing!"

"Hang on, I'm going to go and get Gerry. The others can kill themselves if they want to, but I'm not leaving my cousin here!"

"Ro…wait!" Ella called uselessly as Ro waded forward into the group.

It alerted the others to their presence. "Aaah, look!" said one of the fourth-year pages. "Ickle first-years want to come and play with us!"

"Not just any first years," that snide voice was Trianne. Ella avoided looking her way. "It's the Shrimp and her Yamani bodyguard."

Ro shot the other girl a dirty look, before turning to Gerry. "Come on, you said you were coming inside with us."

"I will in a bit," replied Gerry. "You go on ahead, we'll catch you up."

"No," said Ro sternly, looking for all the world like Lady Keladry for a moment. "Come with us now. What you're doing is dangerous. What if the ice breaks?"

There was a collective "ooooh" from the other pages and a round of sniggers. Cole, who was standing a little way off with another fourth year, looked sheepish, but kept out of it.

Ro's face was burning with humiliation but she held Gerry's gaze firmly.

Gerry was also blushing. "Thanks for the advice, Mother," he said sarcastically. "I think I can handle myself."

"Gerry…" began Cole, seeming very uncomfortable all of a sudden. "Maybe we should…"

"Yes, Gerard, maybe you should go back with your little friends," Hannett had sauntered over. She draped herself over Gerry's shoulder. "We don't want you to get scared now, do we?"

He shook her off angrily. "What makes you think I'm scared?"

"Getting your cousin and her pet project to get you out of this game, that's what," grinned Hannett, tossing her plait over one shoulder.

"I'm not scared," said Gerry, his blue eyes glittering.

"Prove it," Hannett dug a finger into his chest. "With me. To the middle and back. Last one back has to carry the other's equipment for a whole week."

"You're on!" Gerry already had a foot on the frozen surface of the pond.

Ro caught him by the arm. "Don't be stupid Gerry."

He pulled his arm away sharply, his normally handsome face clouded with anger. "Ro, if you stopped acting like a cry-baby first year, more people might actually like you." Gerry turned to chase after Hannett, who had started her slippery way across the pond, and so he missed the wounded look in Ro's eyes.

Cole looked at the two first-years despairingly, but turned away to watch the race with the other older pages.

"Come on," Ro said quietly to Ella. "Let's go inside."

Seeing her friend was close to tears at her cousin's rebuke, Ella complied. "He didn't mean it Ro. He's just showing off in front of the others. You know what boys are like."

"I know, but sometimes he can be so – " Ro was cut off by a loud scream from behind them, followed by shouts.

The two of them stared at each other in horror, before turning and running full pelt back to the pond.

Elbowing their way through the suddenly panicking older pages, the two young girls reached the edge of the pond, to see Gerry had stopped halfway to the middle, on his hands and knees. About eight feet in front of him was a large hole in the ice. There seemed to be no movement, before a pair of arms surfaced, waving ineffectively and Hannett's terror-stricken face bobbed up momentarily. She gave a choked cry, only to disappear beneath the surface again.

"We'll go for help," said a voice towards the back of the crowd and a couple of pairs of feet thundered off.

"There's a gardener's shed over there, I'm going to see if there's any rope," Merienna said; a tinge of fear in her usually calm tones.

It occurred to Ella that all this might be too little, too late. The water in that pond was deep and freezing. Hannett rose to the surface again, her arms waving more weakly this time, before she sank once more. Gerry seemed incapable of moving.

Next to Ella, Cole put a foot out on the pond, only for an ominous crack to sound as he tried to put his whole weight on it.

"I'll go," Ella's voice seemed not to come from her, but from elsewhere. She stepped carefully out onto the ice.

"No!" Ro shouted at her. Cole grabbed her arm. "It's too dangerous. Wait for someone…"

"To do what? It might be too late. I'm the lightest one here, I have a chance to get to her, at least hold her head above water." Shaking a stunned Cole's arm off, Ella walked a few wobbly paces forward before anyone could stop her.

It was much more slippery than it looked. She felt like a baby deer trying to walk for the first time; with every step her feet threatened to go out from under her. Every so often she thought she felt the ice crack as she stepped on it; miraculously it held underneath her as she made her painfully slow way towards Gerry.

Coming level with him, Ella didn't dare draw too close, for fear their combined weight would crack the ice. "Are you all right?"

He didn't reply. He seemed as frozen as the surface he was kneeling on – his weight, at least, was being spread over a wider area, helping to keep the ice intact. But Gerry's gaze was focused on the hole that lay before him. Ella followed his gaze. Hannett's hands grasped futilely at the edge of the ice for a second, before she sank again. She didn't resurface.

"I'm going to try and reach her. See if you can make your way back towards the others." Ella started forward a few more steps when she realised Gerry still hadn't moved. "Hey!" She clapped her hands sharply. He jumped and looked at her. "Go back, Gerry!"

His face was white as he nodded at her and, still on hands and knees, started to slide his way backwards to the shore.

Meanwhile Ella was drawing closer to the hole in the ice, aware that she needed to be extra careful of weak spots here. Only a couple of minutes had passed since the accident, but it felt like an eternity and Ella knew Hannett could not last much longer. Copying Gerry, Ella got onto her hands and knees, spreading her weight, and slid cautiously towards the jagged hole.

As Ella reached the hole, Hannett made a last attempt at pushing towards the surface, but Ella could see the girl was starting to lose mobility. Her lips were tinged with blue and her skin was almost translucent. Ella reached forward, as Hannett's arms clawed desperately at the air, and succeeded in grasping a handful of sleeve.

She tugged, pulling as much of the older girl up as she could, but she was a dead weight with sodden clothes. Ella grunted, managing to get her hands under Hannett's armpits and held the top half of her above the water.

Ella's own sleeves were already soaked through and she could feel the numbing cold starting to tingle up her arms. How Hannett had managed to stay moving for so long was beyond her, but Ella realised the girl was now slipping in and out of consciousness. She was shivering violently. As Ella tried to pull her further out of the hole, the ice below her made a cracking sound and she fell still, not daring to move.

There was an incomprehensible shout from behind and something flew past the corner of Ella's eye and snaked its way into the water beyond her.

It was a length of rope, the other end being held by people on solid ground.

Saying a prayer of thanks to any god that was listening, Ella grabbed the soaked rope and tried to wrap it around Hannett so she could be pulled to safety. It was difficult; she couldn't hold the girl and work the rope at the same time. As she fumbled, straining with the weight, Hannett slipped further back into the water.

The renewed shock of the cold water woke the girl up. She started to panic.

"No," cursed Ella, trying to maintain both her balance and her grip on Hannett. "Stay still or – "

It was too late. Ella lost hold of the rope as she tried to restrain Hannett's wildly flailing arms. The girl was weak, but still bigger and heavier than Ella, and in her terror she managed to wrap her arms around Ella's neck.

The water felt like thousands of needles entering her skin, as Ella plunged headfirst into the hole, with the weight of a desperate Hannett dragging her down.


	8. Heroes

**A slightly updated version of this chapter. I realised I had made another mistake with Gerry (that darn boy is causing all sorts of problems!) ;o) xx**

_8_

The breath left Ella's lungs in a rush of bubbles as the appalling cold seemed to permeate her very bones. For a terrifying moment, she did not know which way was up.

Fighting hard against the instinct to breathe in, trying to ignore the burning sensation in her lungs, Ella opened her eyes in the dark water. She saw a glimpse of a white face – Hannett, her eyes half closed, sinking slowly.

Ella tried to grab Hannett, but the girl was just out of reach and the rushing noise in Ella's ears told her she needed to breathe, quickly. Kicking hard against the weight of her own soaked clothes, Ella struggled against the pressing darkness that was closing in on the edges of her vision.

Breaking the surface, she took a few desperately needed gulps of frigid air, before steeling herself to dive beneath the icy water again.

Strangely, she no longer felt particularly cold. Wishing she was not still wearing her boots, Ella relied more on her arms to propel her downwards into the inky depths of the pond. She could not see Hannett anymore, but still she swam downwards, feeling slimy weeds brushing against her face.

Suddenly the palms of her hands felt the muddy bottom of the pond. She knew she could not hold her breath for much longer; but she had to find Hannett. Ripping the gloves off her hands, Ella felt around the bottom of the pond. Just when she was about to give up and return to the surface to breathe, her numb fingertips came into contact with something solid.

Winding her fingers around the fabric of, what she assumed was, Hannett's jacket, Ella kicked off from the bottom of the pond. Once more her lungs were becoming more and more insistent about needing air, but the glimmer of light from the hole in the ice above her seemed very far off still. Ella kicked her booted feet hard, struggling to propel herself and Hannett up. Panic started coursing through her rapidly numbing body, as treacherous thoughts about the hole above her head icing over before she could reach it floated across her mind's eye.

Something stroked the top of her head, making her start. It took precious seconds for her to realise it was the rope. Using the last ounce of strength left in her, she grabbed it with her free hand and yanked.

As soon as she did, the rope went taught, dragging her and Hannett towards the surface. Ella's right hand closed reflexively around the coarse fibres as she strained once more against the weight of the older girl.

Finally, Ella felt the top of her head break the water. As her nose and mouth reached the air, she coughed involuntarily, choking up lungfuls of water she hadn't even realised she had breathed in. The rope continued to pull and Ella felt the muscles in her shoulders screaming as Hannett also broke through to the surface and the two of them were dragged over the jagged edge of the crack in the ice, no longer supported by the buoyancy of the water. Still, she held on as they bumped and slid at an extraordinary rate across the frozen surface of the pond.

The tug of the rope stopped abruptly and Ella could feel vibrations through the ice as several pairs of feet slipped and slid towards them. People were shouting and talking at her, but Ella shut her eyes against the noise. All she wanted to do was sleep.

Someone tried to take the rope away from her, but her hand had locked around it. Fingers prised her own open, before she was picked up and lifted into the air. Ella felt herself being pressed tight against someone's chest, her head lolling over their shoulder.

"Ella? Ella?" Ro's voice floated through to her. Blinking water out of her eyes as it ran down her face from her hair, Ella raised her head to see her friend looking up at her concernedly. "Are you ok?"

She wasn't, not really, but Ella was ready to lie to put the worry to rest in Ro's eyes. However, she found she was shivering violently and unable to form a sentence through her chattering teeth.

"Is she conscious?" an adult male said nearby.

"Yes, just about" said the person who was carrying her and Ella recognised Merienna's tones.

"Can you manage to carry her to the infirmary? Your body heat will keep her warmer than any amount of blankets. We need to get this other one back and quick."

Ella felt, rather than heard Merienna murmur her assent. The bobbing motion made by the big girl walking her to the Palace was soothing and Ella found herself drifting off into a blessed slumber.

xxx

Kel didn't see the person coming around the corner of the corridor and so hurtled into them with some force, knocking them both flat.

"Normally," came a muffled voice from somewhere around her chest area. "This would be a perfect opportunity to make some sort of lewd joke, but given the circumstances…"

Ignoring the comment, Kel clambered to her feet and thrust a hand wordlessly at the man she had just trampled. He grasped it and allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

"I was just looking for you," commented Dom. "Neal said he'd sent someone to find you but…"

"I know," said Kel, resuming her trot towards the infirmary. "I was in a meeting."

The two of them jogged towards the healer's wing of the Palace, to be greeted with a gaggle of pages milling about outside.

Kel skidded to a halt and tried to resume some semblance of composure. "Pages!"

The group of youngsters jumped at the sound of her voice and snapped to attention, turning to face her.

"I want only those who were directly involved. The rest of you, return to your rooms to await further instruction." When more than a few of them shuffled their feet sullenly, her fraying patience started to show. "_Now!_" she barked.

She was left with Cole of Kennan, Merienna of Sweetspring, Gerard of Masbolle, Trianne of Vikison Lake and, to her dismay, Ro.

"All of you were involved in this?" Kel said, her voice hard.

Red-haired Cole raised his head to look at her. "Not quite, My Lady…" he started, hesitantly. "There was a big group of us. We were playing…"

"…on the pond, in the ornamental gardens," cut in Trianne. The girl's face was stricken. "Hannett…" she choked, obviously trying to hold back tears.

Kel's eyes roved over the small group. None of them would look her in the face. Except Merienna.

"If it please you, My Lady," said the big girl. Kel had a lot of time for Merienna, a quiet girl who concentrated hard on her studies and combat training. The only girl in her year group, she was obviously self-conscious about her looks, but had never let it hold her back in trying to be the best. It hurt Kel's heart that she had not seemed to make any friends amongst the pages.

"Go on, Page Sweetspring."

"Hannett challenged Gerard to a race across the frozen pond. Ryoku tried to stop them from doing so, but they went anyway. Hannett fell through the ice. Two of the others went for help and I went to get rope from a nearby shed…"

"Cole wanted to go out on the ice." That was Ro, finally breaking her silence. She looked up at Kel, tears streaming down her face. "But he was too heavy; we all thought it might break if any of us went out, but Ella's so small, she thought she could do it, and she did, but she fell in trying to save Hannett…" Ro stopped speaking, sobbing into her hand.

At that moment, the only thing Kel wanted to do was to take her gods-daughter in her arms and comfort her, like the many times she had done through her life. Indeed, she almost stepped forward to do so, but stopped herself just in time.

Thankfully, Dom had no such compunctions. He scooped Ro into a hug. "It's alright mini-Meathead," Kel heard him whisper in Ro's ear. "It's going to be ok."

"Very well then," sighed Kel. "Sweetspring, Kennan, Vikison Lake and Queenscove, you are dismissed for now. Go back to your rooms."

"But Aun…My Lady," said Ro, pushing away from Dom's embrace. "What about…we want to know if…"

"I know," said Kel, her voice softening slightly. "And I will keep you informed. Now go and get some rest, all of you. You still have duties to perform tonight." As much as Kel wanted to pull all the pages out of the Midwinter celebrations, she knew it wouldn't be possible without causing Master Oakbridge to have some sort of stroke.

They left reluctantly, leaving a miserable Gerard in their wake. He looked a sickly pale colour and had not stopped staring at the toes of his boots.

Eyeing the youngster with his uncle standing nearby, Kel could see anew the similarities. Gerry shared Dom's dark hair and vivid blue eyes, along with the long, wide-tipped nose that seemed prevalent in that family. She opened her mouth to speak, but was cut off by Dom.

"How could you be so _stupid_?" snapped Dom, the lines on his forehead deepening with a frown. "You just wait until I write to your father, young man, and we'll see just what he has to say about this!"

"Sorry Uncle." Kel could barely hear the reply; it was said in such a small voice.

"Sorry is all well and good, but someone could have _died_ today, because you were too busy showing off and playing silly buggers. Is that how a knight of the realm is supposed to act?"

Gerry didn't reply, but hung his head even further. Kel could see tears gathering at the end of his nose, dripping onto the front of his tunic.

"Thank you Captain Domitan. Page Masbolle, I will speak to you about this later. In fact I will speak to _all_ the pages concerning such dangerous behaviour. You are dismissed."

The lad managed to nod, before leaving practically at a run down the corridor.

"I hope you're not going to go too easy on him, Kel," said Dom, still looking angry. "I can't believe my nephew would do something so _idiotic_…"

Kel placed a calming hand on Dom's shoulder. "I don't think any punishment I could give him would make him feel worse than he is already," she commented, thinking about the wretched tears streaming down the boy's face. "I doubt any of them really stopped and thought about the consequences."

Dom sighed and Kel took a moment to study his weathered face. Though he was now in his early forties, grey hair sprinkled liberally around a hairline that was rapidly marching backwards, Dom would always make her heart speed up. They'd had a few brief, passionate affairs when they had been a _lot_ younger, but always their careers got in the way. They had called things to a permanent halt when Dom had been promoted to Captain of Third Company at Lord Raoul's retirement. Since then, neither of them had settled down and found anyone permanent – it made Kel wonder sometimes if they too readily put aside private life for the sake of their jobs.

He smiled sadly at her now, crow's feet crinkling around his still vibrant blue eyes. "What? You've got your Yamani face on."

She shook her head. "Nothing. Just thinking. And worrying." Glancing at the door behind them, Kel heaved another sigh and steeled herself, before entering the infirmary.

xxx

The softness of the bed seemed to envelope her in warmth. Ella felt like she was floating on a sea of pink clouds – something to do, the small rational part of her mind that was still active told her, with the herbal concoction the healer had given her.

"It relaxes the muscles and eases the pain," the woman had said, feeling Ella's forehead with concern in her eyes. "When the blood starts recirculating round your hands and feet properly, you'll be thankful of it."

Ella was. She was aware of a cramping in her extremities, but it seemed distant and not connected to the fluff her mind was wrapped in.

She could hear what was going on around her and watched with a vague interest the bustling people through her half closed eyes.

A door opened close by and Ella recognised the shape of Lady Keladry, followed by a man in King's Own uniform.

"Update?" the Lady Knight's voice was brisk.

"Not great." That was Sir Nealan, sounding tired. "Hannett was in that water for a long time, considering the temperature outside. She wasn't breathing when they brought her in and we had to restart her heart. She's as stable as we can make her now, but she's suffering from hypothermia and we're still treating her for it. Her body's temperature is almost back to normal, but we need to raise it slowly, otherwise it can be just as dangerous.

There was a tense pause. "What about Ellabelle?" said Lady Keladry, her voice tight.

"I'm amazed, to be frank. From what I could work out while the other pages were gabbling at me, Ella dove under the water to save Hannett."

_That's not quite how it happened_, Ella wanted to say, but she couldn't quite manage the words, instead producing a long sighing sound.

The springs dipped on Ella's bed, as someone sat and gently moved her still damp hair away from her forehead. "Will she be all right?"

"She's also got hypothermia, albeit not as serious as Hannett. We've given her something to keep her sedated. She also had quite severe rope burn on one hand and numerous cuts from being dragged across the ice. We're treating her for them as well. She should be all right."

Ella saw Sir Nealan move away, letting the light fall upon the person who was sitting on the edge of the bed, stroking her hair softly. It was Lady Keladry. The other man, the dark haired one, came to stand next to her.

"She's such a tiny thing," he commented. "How on earth can she be training to be a knight?"

"Don't discount her Dom," said the Lady Knight quietly. "Think about what she did today. If Ella hadn't been there…I dread to think what would happen…"

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Ella shut her eyes completely, calmed by the gentle motion of the Lady's hand on her hair.

"Kel?" the man said. "Are you all right?"

Even in her befuddled state, Ella was amazed to hear the Lady's voice break a little. "I'm just cross I wasn't there to stop it from happening."

"You can't be everywhere at once. They have to make their own way at some time or other."

"Sometimes I wonder if we do train them too young."

"Think, Kel," replied Dom. "Would Ella have been able to do what she did if she hadn't had the training you're giving her?"

"I don't think it was training that mattered here." The woman gave a sigh and the bed creaked slightly as she got up. Ella heard a whisper in her ear. "Get better, little one. The realm needs heroes such as you."

As the two of them left the room, Ella drifted further into sleep. Her last conscious thought was a wish that her mother could have been Lady Knight Keladry of Mindelan.


	9. Parents

**As Olympic fever grips the international stage, I have been bashing out chapters at an almost World Record pace (for me anyway!) Go team GB! Silver in the three day team eventing yesterday and our first gold in the ladies rowing pairs today! Even me, with my general dislike of sports, am taking an interest (hard not to when it's basically on the doorstep).**

**Well, here's the next chapter. I'm going to start moving the timeline along a little after this one, as I'm very aware we're still only in the first term of Page training! **

**Hope you enjoy and thanks for everyone still reading and reviewing! I don't own anything that belongs to Tamora Pierce :o)**

_9_

It was another two days before Ella was allowed to leave the infirmary. By then, most of the Midwinter celebrations at the Palace were drawing to a close.

"Not that you've missed much," commented Sir Nealan, using the green light of his magic to give her a final check over. "I don't remember much about my first year of serving at Midwinter other than sweaty kitchen folk."

Ella smiled at him, before glancing over at the bed in which Hannett still lay, asleep.

Sir Nealan followed her gaze. "She's going to be fine. It's just going to take a bit longer for her to be up and about. You, however, young lady," he added, shaking his head in disbelief. "You clearly have someone up there looking after you."

He pronounced her fit to go and held the infirmary door open for her.

Ella had no sooner put a foot out of the door then she was encased in a pair of arms that crushed her in a tight hug.

"Oh I forgot to mention," chuckled Sir Nealan. "You have your very own escort waiting to take you back to your room."

Ella laughed in response and gently untangled herself from Ro's embrace. The two girls walked off arm in arm towards the pages wing.

"I'd ask what's been going on, but since you and Cole have been down to visit me every second you were free, I've probably got a better idea than most!" Ella grinned up at her friend.

Ro smiled back at her, but it was tinged with worry. "Yeah, of course…"

Ella frowned. "What's the matter? Has something happened?"

"No. Nothing's wrong…" Ro paused, as if uncertain what to say. "You've got visitors waiting for you in your room. Your parents."

Her parents. A tight knot tied itself in the pit of Ella's stomach; half pain and half joy. Her father was here – she had missed him so much in the last few months. But Ro had said _parents_, which meant only one thing. Her mother was here too.

The two of them came to a halt outside Ella's door. Ella stared at the wood, trying to convince herself that her mother was here only out of concern for her daughter's welfare.

"I'll leave you to it," said Ro. She knew how Ella felt about her mother. "It'll be nice to see your father again. It must have been hard for them to get here as quickly as they did through all the snow." She gave Ella a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, before heading towards her own room.

Resting her head for a moment on her door, Ella steeled herself before entering.

Her eyes found her father first; he was standing at her desk, leafing through her half-finished academic work with interest. She drank in the sight of him; a short man with greying brown hair and kindly blue-grey eyes.

He turned at the sound of the door opening and his solemn face broke out into one of his room-brightening smiles.

"Ella!" he whispered as she ran to him. Scooping her up into his embrace, he swung her around like he always used to do when she was younger. Her father craned his head back to get a proper look at her, his eyes clouding with worry as he took in her still too-pale face. "Should they have let you out the infirmary yet? When Lady Keladry sent us word, I didn't know what to think…"

"I'm fine Papa, really," smiled Ella.

A small, pointed cough from the other side of the room made both of them start slightly. Ella turned her head to see her mother perched on her desk chair next to the fire.

With a sigh, her father put her down. "Be nice," he whispered in her ear.

Ella grimaced at him, before walking over to stand in front of her mother. Lorette sat as if she wanted to come into contact with as little as possible in the room. Her expression was one of distaste – but then, that was normal – as she gazed at her daughter with her imperious eyes.

Not for the first time, Ella wished she looked more like her father's branch of the family. But every time she looked in the mirror she saw the same pale skin, straight white-blonde hair and sky-blue eyes that came from the Stone Mountain branch. Her father always gently reminded her that she would one day be a great beauty like her mother, but Ella would have traded all the good-looks in the world to not have that reminder staring back at her every day.

"Mother," Ella said politely, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

Lorette bore it with impatience. "So nice of you to finally remember me, Ellabelle. I am the one who gave birth to you after all." She sniffed, grasping her daughter by the shoulders to look her over properly. "You look dreadful. You're far too thin."

"I have been unwell, Mother," Ella replied through gritted teeth, clenching her fists at her sides.

"So I hear. And not even halfway through your first year of this ludicrous pursuit." Lorette raised her perfectly shaped eyebrows. "I am hoping you have finally come to your senses after this. We have come to bring you home. If you are very lucky – and if your father manages to scrape together a more substantial dowry for you," here she shot her husband a filthy look, "then we should at least be able to secure a half-decent marriage for you within the next two years."

Ella heard little else beyond "we have come to bring you home". Her stomach dropped to the bottom of her boots. She looked at her father in shock.

"Papa? You're…you're not really…"

Elbert made a frustrated noise. "No, darling, we're not. Not if you don't want to. It's your decision, as I keep explaining to your mother, although it appears my words fall on deaf ears."

As her pulse rate started to return to normal, Ella turned back to her mother, who was starting to turn the shade of red she normally did when her husband contradicted her.

"I went along with this only so you would see what a stupid choice you are making, Ellabelle," said Lorette, her voice shaking with anger. "Look at you! In men's clothes, your hair too short…you could be such a pretty girl, yet you continue to deny yourself the possibilities of your birth. At every turn you spit on the good name of your family."

Ella could feel her fury rising from the very soles of her feet. "Not my family, mother. Your family. And, let's face it; they did a pretty good job of spitting on their own good name when your brother died in the Chamber."

She was ready for the slap and so managed to dodge her mother's flying hand. Lorette was on her feet now – only a few inches taller than her daughter, but seeming to tower over her all of a sudden.

"_Never_," her mother choked on her own anger for a moment, before closing her eyes and regaining some of her composure. When her eyes opened, there was only coldness in them. "This must be my punishment from the gods, to have such a terrible daughter. The only one I have…I have given you every opportunity and yet you insist on repaying in me in such a manner. Well," here Lorette glanced around Ella's quarters with contempt, "if this is truly the life you choose then so be it. I want nothing more to do with a child who insists on dragging her name through the mud."

Ella didn't reply; she just looked back at her mother with the level gaze that she knew frustrated Lorette more than any amount of shouting would have done. "Very well mother. There's the door. Why don't you use it?"

Lorette's mouth opened and closed a few more times, without any sound, before she swept past her daughter in a swish of expensive skirts.

Watching her leave, Ella sagged and heaved a sigh. She looked at her father. He was leaning on the desk, having seen exchanges like this between mother and daughter all too frequently.

"Nice to see your reflexes haven't suffered," he said wryly. Elbert shook his head sadly. "It's a mystery to me why you two just can't get along."

It always had been a mystery to Ella how her father had never worked out the reasons she and her mother 'didn't get along'. Still, she reasoned, it was his sweet, if naïve, nature that made him so special. Her father tried to interfere as little as possible between Lorette and Ella in the hope they might one day come to an impasse. He only stepped in when it was apparent that Ella was becoming very upset or if Lorette challenged his authority too much.

Her mother's words hadn't really upset Ella for a long time now – she had learnt to let them wash over her.

Ella and her father spoke a little more. He made it clear that he was very proud of how she was doing. When he was satisfied that she really was fine after her ordeal and the aggravated pacing outside the door became too much for either of them to stand any more, Elbert took his leave.

"We can't stay for the end of Midwinter, I'm afraid. With the weather how it is at the moment, we have a lot to sort out back at Brightleigh," Ella's father hugged her one last time. "We'll see you back at home over the summer though."

"Of course," replied Ella, wincing inwardly at a whole summer in the same house as her mother. Still, she'd get to see her father and cousins again.

Elbert opened the door to reveal Lorette, waiting for him and tapping her foot loudly.

"Goodbye mother," Ella said, at a meaningful glance from her father. "Sorry about what I said before. Have a safe journey – see you in the summer."

Lorette tutted and started to walk off, nose in the air – as good an acknowledgement as Ella was going to get. Her father winked at Ella before following her mother down the corridor.

Closing the door behind them, Ella collapsed back on her bed, puffing out her cheeks. Suddenly, the hard work of the next few months seemed like nothing compared to the impending summer holidays.

xxx

It was a pleasant surprise to Kel to see her gods-daughter leaning against the wall of the pages wing, chatting to Merienna. The big girl had plagued her with worries of being too solitary; it was nice to see her finally branching out to someone.

"Sweetspring, Queenscove," Kel said, nodding at the two of them.

"My Lady," replied Merienna, bowing respectfully. Ro followed suit a few seconds later, treating Kel to a cheeky grin.

"Why are the two of you lurking around out here?" asked Kel.

"Merri came to see Ella, now she's out of the infirmary," replied Ro, casually. _Merri_? thought Kel, _not the sort of girl I would imagine to have a nickname_. "But she's with her parents at the moment."

_Damn, I forgot they would be here_. Kel was on her own way to check on Ella, now she was to return to normal page duties once the last Midwinter feast was over. The last thing she wanted was a run in with Joren's sister.

She was on the verge of turning back the way she came, but it seemed the gods were not on her side that day. Footsteps came round the corner of the corridor and suddenly Kel was transported back to her own page years – staring into a face that had looked back at her so many times with the same hatred it was now.

Lorette of Brightleigh was tiny – one could see where Ella got it from – but elegantly dressed in a sweeping gown of rich blue silk. Her swathes of thick, almost-white, hair were swept up and piled on top of her head. Her cold blue eyes looked directly into Kel's hazel ones with pure anger. She was her brother, in female form.

"Lady Brightleigh," said Kel courteously, bowing to her. She noticed the woman's husband for the first time, Elbert, a non-descript man with a gentle expression. "Lord Brightleigh."

He smiled at her and bowed in return; straightening, his head barely reached her shoulder. _Maybe Ella isn't going to grow that much after all,_ thought Kel.

"Lady Knight," said Elbert, his voice deep and tranquil. "I must congratulate you on the hard work you are doing and the care you have been taking of our daughter."

"_Care?_" the shrill accusing voice of Lorette broke out before Kel had a chance to reply. "You call allowing our daughter to almost drown in a freezing pool, _care_? I call it negligence – if I had _my_ way then Ellabelle would be coming home with us today! Mark my words, _Knight_," never had a word been loaded with such venom. "Your superiors will be hearing about this."

Never, in a long time, had Kel been so thankful for her Yamani mask. Her facial expression remained perfectly neutral as she replied, "As to that, I can only extend my deepest apologies. However, you must be aware that the nature of their training means pages cannot be under supervision at all -"

She was cut off again. "I care little for the ins and outs of _page training_." Lorette eyed the two girl pages who were still stood there, looking very uncomfortable – exotic Ro and Merienna with her large frame and pimples. "I can see for myself the sorts of so-called women it produces nowadays. My father and brother had the right of it. This realm is indeed going to the dogs. It has been made clear to me that I have no say in my own daughter's upbringing. I want nothing more to do with the whole business. It might have even been better if you hadn't bothered dragging her out of the ice after all." And before Kel's brain could think of an answer to this, the woman had strutted off.

Elbert watched his wife's retreating back for a moment, before looking at Kel with a mix of anger and sorrow. "I can only apologise for her behaviour Lady Knight. You are doing a fine thing for this realm. Some people just can't see past their own noses." He bowed and trotted after Lorette.

Kel watched them go, dimly aware that her Yamani façade had broken and left her standing there with her mouth hanging open.

A small noise made her look to her right, where Merienna and Ro were watching her with wide eyes, as if to work out what she was going to do.

Taking a deep breath through her nose, Kel struggled to keep her temper in check. "Sweetspring, Queenscove…" she paused, making sure her voice wasn't shaking. "Go and see Page Brightleigh. You have a few hours before the final feast tonight. I'll be along in a moment, to speak to her myself. I just need to go and…" _Hit something. Or someone. Really hard. Possibly with a big stick. _"…sort a few things out."

The girls bowed to her, before making their way down to Ella's room; Ro looking back over her shoulder at Kel concernedly. Forcing a smile, Kel waved her on.

When they had disappeared around the corridor, Kel slammed her fist into the wall. The pain from it felt oddly good and cleared her head a little.

_How could a mother talk about her daughter like that? It's so…so…_

Even in her own mind, Kel could not form the words she needed to express her feelings. She needed to do something or she'd go running after Lorette and forget her knightly vows pretty quickly.

_A run around the curtain wall should do it. Or maybe I can find someone to spar with. Neal's no good, he's gone soft since he's been concentrating on his healing duties. Dom's still around though. I'll find Dom._

Cheered a little by that prospect, Kel stalked off, trying to settle her boiling emotions as she did so.


	10. Summer Begins

**Hello lovely readers. Sorry for the delay in uploading chapters, but it's been a manic few weeks! Here's a short one to tide you over for a while... Hope you enjoy! Thanks once more for your reviews.**

_10_

_Summer_

The air was balmy and warm on the day the pages left for their summer camp. Ella felt it sink into her very bones as she relaxed fully for the first time in months.

The little examinations had been less of a trial then she feared. Ro had tried to reassure her on the run up to them, but still Ella had fretted herself into distraction – what if she had a mind blank and forgot the answers to the judges' questions? What if she couldn't perform the physical tasks?

As it turned out, Ella breezed through them, as did the other first, second and third year pages. She, Ro and Gerry had turned out at the big exams in support of Cole and Merienna.

Ella would miss the two of them. Merienna had become a good friend since the day on the ice, often joining in their boisterous conversations with her own quiet views. She proved to have a sharp wit and a very dry sense of humour. Cole, as her sponsor, had been a source of laughs and advice since her very first day. Ella may not technically need a sponsor anymore, but it would seem strange to not have the big-redhead constantly cracking jokes on her most down days.

However, Ella did not think she would miss Cole as much as Gerry would. Since the incident on the pond, he had been guilt-ridden to an extreme. He hadn't said much on the subject to Ella past apologising profusely, but Ro had told her in confidence that he had come close to quitting page training and only a long talk with the Training Mistress had changed his mind. His entire attitude had become one of hard work and fierce concentration in lessons – gone were the days of him acting the class clown. It was only when Cole could goad him into practical jokes did he seem like the same old Gerry.

And now Cole was going. Ella and Ro were both worried on the effect it would have on Gerry in his final year as a page and vowed that, between them, they would return him to his normal jovial self.

As the line of riders snaked through the track into the Royal Forest, Ella settled herself more comfortably on Spook's back and craned her neck to see what was going on up ahead.

She caught the eye of Trianne of Vikison Lake, who gave her a small smile, before turning back to her conversation. Since Hannett's departure from the pages' wing, Trianne had become much kinder in her attitude towards Ella.

Ella remembered that departure with a twinge of sadness. She had been given a message, three weeks after midwinter, to visit the infirmary. Slightly confused, she had complied, to find Hannett of King's Reach standing outside the door, surrounded by luggage.

"Hello, Ella," the older girl had said, smiling uncomfortably. Her pretty face still looked gaunt and her normally lustrous hair was pulled back untidily.

"Hello," Ella replied.

There was a moment of silence, in which Hannett seemed to be working up the courage to say something.

"I'm leaving," she blurted out finally, gesturing at the bags around her. "As you can see."

"Oh…" Ella shifted her weight from foot to foot, not sure where this was going. "I'm sorry. Can I ask…why?"

Hannett shrugged. "Lots of reasons. It's not for me, this knighthood business. I was just doing it because I could, if that makes sense."

It didn't, not really. Ella could think of lots of things that she _could_ be doing. It didn't mean she was about to rush off and do them.

"Anyway…" Hannett started to twist a strand of hair around her finger in a curiously nervous gesture. She was a completely different girl to the one who had stood over Ella those few months before, threatening. "I wanted to say thank you. I haven't really had a chance to say it but…thank you."

Starting to feel very uncomfortable, Ella shrugged. "You don't need to thank me…"

"I do!" the girl's voice became insistent. "You could have died trying to save me, but you still did it anyway! That's why," and here Hannett had smiled crookedly, cocking her head as she regarded the much smaller page in front of her, "that's why you're going to make a much better knight then I ever would have been."

Ella looked down at her feet, feeling her cheeks starting to warm. Suddenly, something was thrust into her line of sight. "Here, I want you to have this."

Reaching out with hesitant fingers, Ella touched the hilt of the dagger. It looked extremely expensive; even the plain black sheath screamed top workmanship – Raven Armoury if she ever saw it.

"Hannett, I can't. This is too…"

"You can. It used to be my grandfather's, then my father's. He passed it to me when I started my knight training. Since I'm not…not continuing, then it should stay with someone who is."

Ella shook her head vehemently. "You can't give this to me, not if it's a family heirloom."

"I can and I will!" Hannett was equally adamant. "I spoke to father about it. He thought it was a good idea to show…show my appreciation and as a way to…as a way to say sorry."

Before Ella could protest anymore, Hannett had taken her by the hand and thrust the intricate wire hilt of the dagger into her palm, wrapping her small fingers around it.

"If it wasn't for you, I might be dead. I was wrong. All the things I said about you…I was so wrong Ella. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't do this," Hannett's large, dark eyes held Ella's blue ones for a long time, before the younger girl nodded.

"What will you do now?" Ella had whispered, feeling a lump in her throat.

Hannet had smiled at her properly, for the first time. "Not sure. Take a while to get my head sorted. I might try for the Queen's Ladies in a couple of years' time. Who knows? I'm done with rushing into things."

"Well," Ella held out her hand for Hannett to shake. "Good luck."

The change in attitude of all the other pages towards Ella had warmed considerably since that event. Riding with them all now, on her first summer camp, fingering the hilt of the lovely dagger that hung from her belt, Ella felt truly content for the first time in her life. Not even the thought of the summer holidays with her mother could dampen her spirits.

"What are you grinning about?" asked Ro, riding up on her left hand side.

Ella looked up at her best friend, her smile widening. "Oh, you know…life in general."


	11. The Queen's Riders

**Hmm, two chapters in one day? Unheard of!**

11

"You are definitely getting better, you know," commented Ro, as she twisted Ella's arm further up her back.

Ella opened her mouth to make a scathing reply. "Aaaaaaaagh…"

"No pain, no gain. Now, can you remember how to get out of this hold?"

Grinding her teeth together, Ella tried to remember. Something about…

"Ouch! For Mithros' sake Ro, how am I supposed to…aaah!...remember when you're pulling my aaaaaaaarm out of its sock…agh!"

"Because when an enemy has got you in a hold such as this he, or she, is not going to give you the luxury of five minutes to recall lessons you should know by now."

Never had Ella been so glad to hear the stern voice of Lady Keladry, as Ro let go her iron like grip on her arm and climbed off her back. Ella got unsteadily to her own feet and bowed.

"My Lady."

Lady Keladry eyed the two girls standing before her. "There's a reason Page Queenscove is good at hand-to-hand combat. What is that reason, Ryoku?"

"Lots of practise, My Lady," said Ro, deadpan. "Lots and lots and _lots_ of practise. Sometimes morning, noon and night."

The Lady Knight gave her gods-daughter a warning raise of the eyebrow. Ro tried to look solemn in response.

"It is not always enough to practise when you have been asked to. You have a disadvantage against the other pages, there's no getting away from that. You will find you have to work doubly hard in order to keep up with them."

Ella could feel her heart sink. She knew her size was holding her back in combat training – it hadn't been much of a problem until the new pages started moving away from basic drills into more complex territory. She could hold her own with a staff, was competent at archery and was getting better with her sword work. Jousting was difficult – at first Ella could barely lift the lance, but persistence over the year had meant she could at least strike the target _somewhere_ two out of three times. The real problem was her hand-to-hand combat. Ella just couldn't seem to master the basics, nor had she ever beaten an opponent. The other pages were too big and much too strong.

It was a worry that had started to plague her since the initial warm glow of passing the little exams wore off. It was all very well being the weakest page, but being the weakest _knight?_ That would surely cause serious, if not fatal, problems later on.

As if sensing Ella's anxiety, Lady Keladry gave one of the rare smiles that completely transformed her austere countenance. "However, sometimes the things we perceive as flaws can work to our advantage. You may lack strength against a heavier opponent, but you are almost certainly going to be quicker and more agile than they are. It's not always power that wins a battle."

"She's right, you _are _pretty nippy when you want to be Ella," put in Ro, thinking no doubt back to their runs around the curtain wall. Ro could never understand how someone with such short legs could lead the pack of pages and not look particularly out of breath by the end of it.

Lady Keladry's mouth twisted disapprovingly. "Well, now that _she_ has made her point, Page Queenscove, _she_ has also come to inform you that free practise time finished a good five minutes ago. Report to the main campfire. And Brightleigh," Ella stopped to look up at the Lady Knight. "Think about what I said. Work at your strengths as well as your weaknesses."

"Yes My Lady," Ella replied, heartened. "Thank you."

xxx

Kel had just finished assembling the last few errant pages – Goddess above, she didn't remember ever being as _giddy_ as they got when out on summer camp – around the campfire, when the sound of many horses approaching reached her ears.

With a nod to the two other adults that had accompanied the pages on their camp – the Shang Lion and Neal – Kel left them in charge of the youngsters, while she walked to the treeline of the clearing to welcome their visitors.

The Rider group halted at the edge of the clearing. The commander of the group dismounted and greeted Kel courteously, a man in his mid-thirties called Dill Roscoe, and she in turn gave him directions on where the group – the Thirteenth, or "Razors" – could tether and water their ponies.

While she was doing this, however, Kel was slightly distracted, looking instead for the second-in-command of the Thirteenth.

Dill realised who she was searching for and grinned. "He's at the back milady. I'll sort this lot out if you want to go and find him."

With a sheepish look and a murmur of thanks, Kel politely pushed her way past the other dismounting Riders.

The lanky boy – no, a man now, he was in his mid-twenties – slid from the saddle of his pony, swiping a hand through flyaway blonde hair. Blue eyes in a very tanned face lit upon her and shone in a grin.

It was well that the rest of the Rider group shielded her from the pages eye-line, for it would not do for them to see their Training Mistress run forward and scoop the shorter man into such a bear hug that his feet left the ground momentarily.

Laughing as he was set back upon the leaf-littered earth, the young man raised an eyebrow. "Well, Lady Kel, I've missed you a whole bunch too, though forgive me if I won't try picking you up in return."

"Insubordinate!" chuckled Kel, giving him a friendly swipe on the shoulder. "Tobeis Boon, when I said I wanted regular correspondence from you, after allowing you to run off to the Queen's Riders, I meant more regular than every six months! I thought you'd vanished right out of Tortall at one point!"

"I _have_ been pretty busy, you know. Bandits. Border patrol. Immortals. It takes up quite a lot of time."

"Too much time to write a letter?" retorted Kel, hands on her hips.

Tobe looked guilty. "No. I'm sorry, just with one thing and another…"

Kel shook her head and smiled. "I know how it is. I'm only joking." And she was. Sort of. She grasped her former servant by the shoulders and looked him over properly. "Have they been feeding you properly? Are you still eating your vegetables?"

"Yes Mother!" he laughed. "I'm starting to think you engineered this whole training exercise just to check up on me!"

"Who's to say I didn't?" winked Kel. Which was another joke. Sort of. "Come on then, Mister Second-in-Command. Come and meet my ducklings. We've lots of fun planned for them."

"I'll bet. Is Sir Neal's daughter a page yet?"

"She is; just finished her first year."

"Gods' protect us all."

xxx

"The Thirteenth have come to ask us for some help," said Lady Keladry, standing tall and imposing over the seated pages. She was flanked by the commander of the Rider group, a stocky man with brown hair; and his second, a slightly weedy looking young man who appeared to have Scanran ancestry.

"That's Tobe," whispered Ro, following Ella's gaze. "He used to be Auntie Kel's servant, before I was born. He joined the Riders when he was fifteen."

Ella nodded, thinking to herself that if that skinny youth could be a warrior, then surely so could she.

"He has horse magic," added Ro.

And there it was; another advantage that Ella did not have. She sighed and retuned her ears to listen to the Training Mistress.

"There have been sightings of a tauros on the western edge of the Royal Forest. It has been moving nearer and nearer to the villages. Reports have come in that a trader and his family were attacked on the road, barely escaping. Rider groups and knights often work together in order to deal with situations such as this. This will not only be a service to the Crown we perform in the next few days, but essential training for all of you. You will be paired in small groups with a Rider in command. You are to obey orders explicitly. Understood?"

As the pages chorused their assent, Ella felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. _A tauros_! She had heard so many stories about those Immortals and none of them good. While part of her urged to go and track the monster down, to prevent it harming or killing any innocent victims, another part of her curled up with dread at the thought of facing such a monster.

Ella mentally rebuked herself. After all, they had a whole Rider squad with them. Likely that the younger pages would be involved in tracking and little else at any rate. It was more of a training exercise really. A training exercise that happened to have a deadly, terrifying beast at the other end of it.

What could go wrong?


	12. Immortals

**Thanks to the people who reviewed the last couple of chapters. Hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!**

**As ever, nothing you recognise from any books is mine. It belongs to Tamora Pierce.**

_12_

Heat lay over the woods like a blanket. Not even the smallest creatures were moving nearby, stifled by the muggy afternoon. The only sounds were insects – the warmth did not bother them. Quite the opposite, in fact.

Ella batted away a swarm of midges from her face. The Rider she was posted with glared at her for making such a large movement. Feeling her already warm face grow hotter, Ella fell still once more. Watching. Waiting.

She had been paired with Thoras of Irismere – ironically one of few pages who still regarded her like something off the bottom of his shoe. The Rider chosen to look out for them – Rita Marnley – was possibly the most dour woman Ella had ever had the misfortune to meet.

_Just my luck_, thought Ella, bitterly. The initial fear and excitement of the hunt for the tauros had dulled by the afternoon of their second day; squashed by the sudden rise in temperature and poor company.

And the waiting. Ella had not realised just how much waiting around there would be. She tried to shift her position in the undergrowth without making a noise. A twig snapped; this time both Rita and Thoras glowered at her.

Fighting the urge to huff a sigh, Ella resigned herself to the fact that she was going to spend a few more hours in this cramped and sweaty position. _We need a storm to clear this air. I wish it would hurry up. I wish something would happen soon. I wish…_

Something did happen. To their left, something large sounded as if it was coming down the forest track. Rita held up a hand in a signal. _Wait._

Adrenaline spiked through Ella's body. She gripped her spear so tightly that her knuckles turned white. At the back of her head she knew that, as first year pages, herself and Thoras were not supposed to engage the beast in any sort of combat. They were there purely to help track and flush it out. The rest of the Rider company and the older pages would do the rest.

She could feel Thoras trembling, his knee pressed against hers. Sneaking a glance at him, Ella saw how all the blood had drained from his face. His eyes were wide with fear.

The Rider had moved forward, to the edge of the protective barrier of brush they were crouched in. She paused. Across her face passed a shadow. Ella could hear a wet snuffling sound. _Something_ was out there. Something was scenting them.

"_Now!_" screamed Rita, springing up from her hiding place and jabbing forward with her spear.

The sudden motion barely registered in Ella's mind, as her legs moved of their own accord. She too leapt to her feet, sprinting out of her crouch and brining her spear up with both hands.

She had a fleeting impression of reddish fur and hooves on muscular legs. The tauros bellowed, as from the other side of the track Ro, another first year page and a male Rider also leapt from their concealment. They yelled and screamed at the monster, as Ella and Rita were doing, waving their spears.

The tauros was supposed to flee. It was supposed to turn and run off in the opposite direction, where a small army was waiting to deal with it.

However, no one had told the tauros this. Instead of running, it held its ground. Ella moved next to Rita, blocking the path behind her, as Ro and the others did the same. Her legs were trembling and bile rose in her throat as she finally got a good look at the Immortal in front of her.

It stood a good seven feet tall, dwarfing all of them. It was definitely male; Ella's eyes moved quickly up the tauros' body and settled on the broad bull's head perched straight on top of hugely powerful shoulders. It roared at them. Ella felt her stomach churn at the sound. To her right, someone gave a whimper.

_We have to kill it or drive it away_, Ella thought frantically. _If we don't…_ She couldn't finish that thought. Her father disapproved when her cousin Yanis told her stories of such monsters and Ella was starting to wish that she hadn't heard them herself.

The tauros scraped a hoof on the ground. It lowered its head.

"As one," said Rita, her voice very soft. As much as Ella had mentally bemoaned the fact she had been posted with the sour-faced woman, she was eternally grateful for her presence at that moment. "When it charges, move out of the way and then we attack as one."

Ella wanted to protest. They were first-year pages. They weren't supposed to be attacking anything. But instead she nodded imperceptibly and resettled the grip on her spear.

As the tauros launched itself towards them, Ella was surprised at the level of calm she felt. It was as if she had stepped outside of her body momentarily and was guiding it from afar.

The group of them sprang to either side of the path at the last moment as the tauros thundered past, carried by its own momentum.

"_Now!_" yelled the male Rider, as the Immortal skidded to a clumsy halt and attempted to turn. They dove forwards, spears thrusting out before them.

Five spear points thudded into the creature. Ella knew this, because she saw the tip of her spear disappear into the tauros' thigh – as high as she could reach. She knew this, because she felt the resistance as her spear entered its flesh. She knew, because she heard the animal cry of pain from the monster, before it disappeared completely.

Stepping back a pace, Ella blinked. Her spear was still in her hand. The tip was clean; no blood. She turned to look at the others. Ro and the other page, Wirrel of Linshart, looked as stunned as she felt.

The two Riders, on the other hand, were standing at ease, their spears held casually by their sides, looking at the youngsters appraisingly.

"Not bad. Not bad at all. I'd say maybe eight out of ten for keeping cool in a crisis." The male Rider looked at Rita for approval.

A wry grin lit up the older woman's sour features. "Maybe even a nine. Well done young'uns. You completed that training exercise well."

Ella could only stand there with her mouth hanging open. It was Ro who spoke, rather faintly, "You mean that was a _test?" _

Rita raised her eyebrow. "You don't think your Training Mistress would have sent you little'uns out to meet a _real_ tauros? By the Black God, the Lady Knight has more sense than that! That's why she called us. We're the only Rider company in Tortall who has a mage able to cast illusions as good as that one. You can bet your boots there have been several tauros sightings today."

It had been an illusion. But it seemed so real. By the gods, Ella could still _smell_ the creature.

"She wanted to test how you'd do in a real situation. Not everything always goes to plan the way we'd like it. Lady Keladry asked us to watch to see how you would keep your heads and take directions. One day it won't be an illusion." Rita looked around, suddenly sensing something awry. She ducked into the bushes and pulled a pale Thoras out of the scrub. Ella had forgotten all about him.

The female Rider looked at the boy with something like pity. "Never mind lad. Can't be expected for everyone to do so well on their first time. You'll get another opportunity. Let's get you all back to camp."

As the adults led the way, Ro and Wirrel trailed after them in something of a daze. Ella made to follow, but realised Thoras hadn't moved. She turned to him, to see two red spots high on his white cheeks. He was breathing heavily and seemed to be struggling with tears.

"Come on Thoras, it's not so bad," Ella said, stepping forward to put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"Don't touch me!" the boy cried fiercely. Startled, Ella stepped back and noticed, for the first time, that the front of his breeches were wet.

Thoras followed her gaze. His face was now completely red.

As his anguished brown eyes met Ella's again, she felt herself blushing as well, more out of embarrassment for him. "I won't tell anyone. I promise. It's okay."

"Just leave me alone, you stupid Shrimp." The boy's hand lashed out, catching her on the cheek.

It was a glancing blow, which stung rather than hurt, but it sparked anger in Ella. She slapped him back.

He stared at her in shock, before turning on his heel and running full pelt down the path. In the opposite direction from the camp.

Thunderclouds were starting to move in overhead and in the distance Ella heard a rumble of thunder. The heat seemed to intensify.

"Damn it!" she growled and sprinted off after her year mate. "Thoras, come back you dolt! There's a storm coming! We have to get back to camp!"

Lady Keladry and Ro were right about one thing; Ella _was_ fast, surprisingly so for such a small person. In no time she had almost caught up with the fleeing boy.

"Thoras!"

"Leave me alone!" he shouted over his shoulder.

It was because he was not looking where he was going that the trap closed about him. Dust grey ropes enveloped him and hoisted him into the air, suspended from a tree branch. He gave a muffled cry of terror.

Ella tried to stop herself, but she had been running too fast. She saw the regular pattern of leaves on the ground in front of her too late as she dug her feet in to the ground. Stumbling, Ella fell forwards onto her face, feeling as she did another trap spring into action. Sticky ropes wrapped themselves around her body and she felt herself lifted into the air, cocooned in a net.

As the swaying motion of the tree branch slowed, Ella tried to regain her scrambled thoughts. She was twisted into an incredibly uncomfortable position, her arms squashed against her chest and her knees bent backwards. Threads wound their way across her face, closing one eye. She wriggled, but that only served to make the ropes tighter.

Ropes? Not ropes. Something else. She revolved slowly in her prison, her open eye alighting on the terrified face of Thoras briefly, who had been unlucky enough to get a mouthful of the stuff. He started to thrash, but Ella could see that just made things worse.

"Keep still!" she hissed, but once more he paid her no heed. As she rotated slowly the other way, Ella attempted to calm her now frantic breathing. Think, think, she needed to think, what could have trapped them so, what was this stuff that looked like rope and reminded her of something else, what did it remind her of…?

Web. The realisation hit her like a bucket of cold water. It was not rope. It was web. And only one creature could have made web traps like this.

Ella started to scream. She didn't care if her cries alerted the wrong ears. She didn't care about much, except finally releasing the sheer terror that had built up inside her chest. Dimly, she hoped her cries would carry back to camp before anything else got here.

Because if there was one thing she was certain of, this time it was _not_ an illusion.


	13. The Spidren's Web

_13_

Kel was busy talking with the various group leaders still trickling back into the camp, which is why she did not notice anything amiss at first. Most of the Riders were reporting that their charges had done very well when faced with a situation such as a tauros. There were a few issues here and there with some of the younger pages that needed to be ironed out, but nothing drastic.

She had to remind herself not to grin as the pages walked past her, shooting her dirty looks. None of them were particularly thrilled with the fact the tauros had all been an elaborate trick – well, Kel reasoned, _not_ a trick but a training exercise. They would see sense later when their tempers had cooled a little.

The sky overhead had suddenly become very dark. The muggy day seemed to grow even hotter and a far-off rumble of thunder reached Kel's ears.

_We need to get them all back to camp before the weather breaks,_ she thought, straining her eyes for the final stragglers.

Finally, Kel spotted her gods-daughter, walking in with Wirrel of Linshart and two Riders. Ro saw her at the same time and stomped over.

"That was really _mean_ Aun…My Lady! I hope you know that. Mean, mean, mean."

Giving an inward sigh at Ro's lack of protocol, Kel folded her arms. "Page Queenscove, I do hope that your group leader only has good things to report about you, otherwise you might find yourself in for a spot of punishment work."

Ro scowled at her, but kept her mouth shut. For once.

Kel's mouth twitched, but she covered it up by turning to the Riders. "How did they get on?"

"First-rate, My Lady," answered the man. "My two here were spot on with following orders and they certainly kept their cool. Couldn't fault them really."

"Mine were a mixed bunch," added the woman, Rita. "The little girl, Ella, was really good; she stayed with me all the way. I worried about her, you know, because of her size; but she didn't bat an eyelid. The lad however…" Rita paused and shook her head. "Poor thing went to pieces."

Kel was pleased at the overall report, though she did have some concerns about Thoras. Turning to speak to the pages, she finally realised what was wrong.

"Where _are_ Pages Brightleigh and Irismere?"

Rita blinked and turned to look behind her, as did the others. Another clap of thunder, closer this time.

"Funny, I could've _sworn_…"

Finding her eyes turning to Ro for an answer, Kel saw the girl frown in confusion. About to ask her gods-daughter a question, Kel heard a noise that was not thunder. A noise that made her blood freeze.

In the distance came the faint, but unmistakable, sound of someone screaming.

xxx

_Stop screaming. Think. Stay calm and _think_._

Her limbs were cramping and she could only see out of one eye. Ella drew a deep breath in through her nose and held it for a moment, stifling the urge to just keep screaming.

A slight breeze rocked her web-prison as the distant thunder boomed again, closer this time. The swaying motion, on top of her fear, was making her queasy. She heard Thoras give a muffled groan.

No big movements. That was the key. Big movements did something to the web, made it constrict around her. Could she free an arm if she moved slowly?

Her dagger. Could she reach her dagger?

Her left arm was pressed on top of her right. That seemed to be her most likely option. Carefully, Ella inched her arm down, pausing every time she thought the web was getting tighter. The fibres clung to her sleeve, resisting fiercely, but with infinite patience Ella managed to get her left hand down by her belt. Her searching fingers managed to brush the top of the dagger's hilt.

_Just a little more._

"Well, my dear. It seems we've caught ourselves a snack or two."

Ella froze. The voice was female; harsh and grating. And coming from above her. She tried to twist her head to see the speaker, but the threads of web tightened dangerously around her throat. She fell still once more.

"I do believe you're right, my pet. Although, I have to say I'm a bit disappointed. Only a mouthful or two at the most."

A new voice. A male one. It sounded even more horrible than the first. Ella heard whimpering and realised it was coming from her own mouth.

"Speak for yourself. My one has a bit more meat on its bones. I may wrap it up and take it back for the young ones to munch on," said the female.

"My traps never have much luck." The male sounded despondent. "I might just eat mine here."

Ella heard a thump and a grunt. _Thoras_. But she was twisted the wrong way round and couldn't see what was happening.

What she _did_ see, however, made her want to vomit. Descending slowly from the tree branch above her was the hairy body of a huge spider, taller than herself. That was bad enough, but as the creature lowered itself down its head came into view.

It was a human head, a man's, with beady black eyes that were looking straight into her own. He grinned at her; a grin filled with razor sharp fangs that dripped saliva.

"Hello, little morsel."

The noise that came from Ella's throat was meant to be another scream. It sounded like a strangled croak.

This only widened the grin on the spidren's face. He reached up with two of his front legs and did something to the thread of web that attached the trap to the tree branch.

Ella didn't remember falling, but she must have done; her right shoulder hit the leaves and dirt of the forest floor with a sickening crunch. Pain raced down her arm and up into her head.

She lay there, helpless, still trapped in web. Behind her she could hear busy rustling noises – the female spidren wrapping Thoras up for her young it would seem. Ella watched a little ordinary spider, crawl over the leaf litter inches from her nose. She vowed that, if she made it out of this alive somehow, she would never again squeak at the sight of a normal spider.

A light pattering came closer and something grasped Ella and rolled her onto her back. Pain from her injured shoulder and her cramped legs was felt and then forgotten, as the terrible face of the male spidren hovered above her.

"Are you going to have a little snack now, dearest?" came the voice of the female.

"Indeed I am, pet. This titbit is not worth taking back to the nest." He leered as he spoke, pushing his face closer to Ella's.

She blinked her one open eye rapidly, trying with all her might to magic the vision in front of her away. "Please…" her voice came out as a whisper. "Please, don't…" Her left fingers were still touching the hilt of her dagger. If she could just…

He sighed. "Oh dear. I hate it when my food talks back to me. It gives me indigestion." He pulled a bit of grey web out of the spinneret on the base of his abdomen and pressed it over Ella's mouth. It stuck there fast.

"Much better," the spidren grinned at Ella's wide eyed horror. "Now…where shall I start? The feet? I dislike the taste of boots; they get stuck in my teeth. Best to get that bit out the way first before I get to…juicier parts."

The spidren made a mistake in leaning closer to Ella's face, the better to see the fear in her blue eye. Her questing fingertips had somehow managed to – she would never be able to say how she did it – slide the dagger out of its sheath. She could only move her forearm; the rest was still stuck against her body. But the spidren made it easy for her.

She jabbed up as hard as she could with the dagger.

The spidren's cruel eyes widened in shock and he made a choked sound. Ella felt a burning sensation on her hand and wrist, like acid.

The creature reared back off of her and Ella could finally see where she had stuck her dagger. In its throat. Black blood poured out around the hilt of the blade as the spidren thrashed.

"What the?" Ella managed to twist her head and finally got a look at the female spidren. Her cry was muffled by the web gagging her. The female was much larger than the male and a mottled grey colour. She was staring at the jerking body of her mate in his death throes, as he choked on his own blood. Behind her, Ella could just make out a dust-grey humanish shape on the ground.

The female's head snapped round and her evil black eyes focussed on the little girl. "You little scab, you'll wish you'd never been born!" She scuttled towards Ella at an alarming speed.

Panicked beyond reason, Ella started to thrash against her web bonds. It was useless, they still held firm. She looked, saw the female getting closer, and shut her eye.

As the pattering of spidren claws drew nearer, suddenly the web binding her melted away. She was free. Ignoring cramp and all other pains, she sat up, opening both her eyes just in time to see the female spidren scurrying towards her.

Ella's scream finally found its way out of her again.

As the sound left her lips, the female spidren drew up short, fear passing over her horrible face. Ella was confused, until her ears registered running footsteps behind her. _Human_ footsteps.

The female spidren reared and shot pink web out of her spinneret. A male voice swore and cursed behind Ella, but it was Lady Knight Keladry who came into view, as the first flashes of lightning burnt overhead. She was wielding that strange long weapon called a glaive. Ella had never really seen her use it before, but now she had a full demonstration of the Lady Knight's prowess as she slashed three of the creature's legs off, beheading it on the return stroke.

The beast's head dropped to the floor as a loud crack of thunder rang through the trees.

Other people swarmed around Ella and over to Thoras – the web binding him had disappeared too, at the death of the female spidren. He was lying very still on the ground, looking green; a great bruised lump on the side of his head. Ella saw Sir Nealan crouch down beside him.

"Ella! Ella!" Voices; there were so many voices and her head hurt. Ella raised her eyes – her left one, the one that had been sealed with web, not focussing properly – and looked up at the group of people standing over her, pages and Riders, looking frightened to touch her. Ro was there and Gerry, their faces white.

"Move!" That was the Training Mistress' voice, as she thrust the others out of the way. Lady Keladry knelt down in front of Ella. Her face was not white, but grey. She looked ill.

"Page Brightleigh?" Ella blinked at the Lady Knight. "Speak to me. Are you all right?"

_I think my right shoulder is dislocated or broken, my eye has gone a bit funny and I seem to have a burn on my left hand. Other than that, yes, yes I am fine._ That's what Ella wanted to say; they were the words jostling for position in her head with so many other thoughts.

Instead what came out as she opened her mouth was a wail that swiftly turned into racking sobs.

As the first large drops of rain began to fall, the Lady Knight scooped Ella gently off the floor of the forest and walked back with her to camp, the other pages trailing after like lost sheep. Lady Keladry didn't say a word, not even when Ella threw up all down the back of her tunic. She just carried on walking.


	14. Sleepless Knights

_14_

Rain came down in sheets from a black sky. It hammered loudly on the outside of the tent, but that was not what was keeping Ella awake.

She shifted position quietly so as not to disturb Ro, who was snoring softly beside her. The movement pulled at her shoulder, making her grimace.

Sir Nealan, with the help of the Shang Lion, had popped it back into place (the memory of it made her shudder) which had been awkward in the makeshift infirmary tent. He had put a slow healing spell on it and strapped her arm tightly to her chest. He then rubbed some salve on the nasty acid burn on her left hand, which stung and then soothed, before checking her eye. There was nothing wrong with it; it had just been a little out of focus to start with as a result of being squashed shut.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again now," Sir Nealan had said while finishing his ministrations. "You are an incredibly lucky young lady. Not many eleven year olds could face down a fully grown spidren in that situation and live to tell the tale." He squinted at her in the dim lamplight and dabbed some salve on parts of her face. The spidren blood had sprayed Ella there too. She hadn't even noticed.

"Now all you need is some rest," the knight looked at her anxiously. "I'd really like to keep you here to check on you, but I think it's going to be a little cramped."

He had waved a hand at Thoras, who was still looking green and was lying prostrate across most of the tent, groaning occasionally.

"Will he be okay?" Ella had asked quietly.

"He'll be fine. A little bit of spidren venom, which we've managed to flush out of him, and a bump to the head. To be honest," here Sir Nealan had lowered his voice. "I think he's milking it a little."

Ella had given him a watery grin, before he had escorted her back to the tent she shared with Ro. But really, she couldn't blame Thoras at all if he was 'milking it'.

As she lay there, staring at the darkness of the canvas overhead and listening to the rain, Ella had to wonder if Sir Nealan would count this as 'milking it' too. She was exhausted and yet incapable of sleeping, even after a healing. Ro's father had offered her a sleeping draught which she had refused.

Part of her didn't want to go to sleep, because she knew what might appear in her nightmares.

The rain seemed to lessen slightly on the canvas. Ro rolled over in her sleep and mumbled something intelligible. The tent was suddenly unbearably confining.

Carefully pushing herself to her knees, Ella felt around and grasped the nearest cloak she could find in the dark. As she pulled it around herself, awkwardly with her one heavily bandaged hand, Ella realised it was Ro's, but kept it on anyway, drawing the hood over her head. When she pushed her way out of the tent flap and stood up in the rain, she was grateful for it. It was far too big and acted like a tent in itself.

Now she was out in the fresh air, Ella wasn't sure what to do with herself. She felt safe within the campsite – Riders were patrolling the borders and someone had kept the big fire in the middle going, even in the rain. The light of the fire drew her in and she wandered over to it.

As she got closer, Ella saw someone else sitting on one of the log seats they had placed around the campfire. Knowing she'd been spotted in the flickering glow, Ella went over.

"I couldn't sleep."

She hadn't bothered with the formalities, but tonight it didn't seem to matter. Lady Keladry gave her a small smile from beneath her wide brimmed hat. "Me neither. Come, take a seat." She patted the log next to her.

As the Lady Knight fed another piece of wood into the flames, Ella perched herself next to the Training Mistress on the log.

"Bad dreams?"

Ella shook her head and then realised that Lady Keladry probably couldn't see that under the cloak. "No. Not yet. I haven't had the chance to have any."

"Lucky you," the Lady murmured softly. Her head was bowed and rain was dripping copiously from the brim of her hat.

The question was almost out of Ella's mouth before she swallowed it again. Some things were a little _too_ personal.

"How are you feeling? Now Sir Nealan's patched you up?" added Lady Keladry quickly, as if aware she may have revealed too much about herself.

"A little sore still, but better, thank you."

"Well, you have the summer to get yourself back on your feet again, ready for the new training year," Lady Keladry paused. "If you decide to come back that is."

A chill ran down Ella's spine; it had nothing to do with the rain. "Do you think I shouldn't?"

The Lady turned her head and Ella raised her own to look in her face, lit by the fire. She could read nothing in those hazel eyes.

"I would like you to," said the knight eventually. "But the choice, ultimately, is yours after all. Do you still want to, after today?"

Ella thought about it and surprised herself with the answer. "Yes. I do. I think today has made it easier, in a way."

Lady Keladry raised her eyebrows. "It has? How?"

"Because I don't think anything could ever scare me that much again."

The snort of laughter from the Training Mistress shocked Ella for a moment. The Lady Knight covered her mouth with her hand, but the laugh insisted on reaching the wet night air. She looked down at Ella; their eyes met and the girl found that she too had started laughing. She wasn't sure what was so funny, but it felt good – a release of sorts.

Soon, their laughter had died away and they fell into a silence, staring through the rain into the sputtering flames of the fire.

xxx

"I wanted to say thank you."

The small voice broke Kel from her reverie. She pulled her gaze away from the fire and turned to look at the little face peeking out at her from the oversized cloak.

"What for?"

"Saving my life today. I don't think I thanked you for it before."

Kel smiled but felt uncomfortable. She had never been good with gratitude. "Don't thank me Ella. It's my job. If I had been doing it properly I would have sent scouts out to make sure there were no such dangers in the area, rather than relying on what I had been told." Part of her was horrified. What was she doing, admitting her faults to one of the pages?

"Well, it might still have happened anyway. Those traps were pretty well hidden and I don't think the spidren would make it easy to find them." Kel felt the girl shiver next to her.

"Perhaps…" Kel let the sentence die away. Half of the Rider group had scouted the area for the nest Ella had heard the adult spidren talking about. They had found it, with several young who were mercifully young enough to be dispatched with relative ease.

Thinking about that sparked a memory in Kel's mind. "I ran into spidren twice when I was about your age."

"Really?" Ella sounded surprised and looked up at her with something akin to awe. It made Kel feel even more awkward. "What did you do?"

"Well, the second time was on my first summer camp. The King's Own asked us for help flushing out a spidren nest, a lot bigger than the one we found today. I mainly did as I was told. Managed to spear one, more by luck than judgement. Sir Nealan did too."

"What happened the first time?" breathed Ella.

"Oh, the first time," Kel smiled to herself. "I was stupid. Not even started my page training but thought I was invincible at the age of ten. I was trying to save some kittens the village boys had been trying to drown. A spidren had other ideas. I went after it with a handful of stones."

"And?"

Kel glanced at the avid expression on the girl's face and shook her head. "And if my brother hadn't heard me blow the horn I carried with me, I would have been that spidren's main course. I tried to climb a cliff to get to it, forgot I was terrified of heights, looked down and froze. My brother turned up with some men and killed the creature. I learned a valuable lesson that day – to think before I leapt into things."

Ella was quiet for a bit. "I don't tend to do that very often."

"It's something that comes with age, don't you worry too much. You have a cool head, which is a good start. Not many could have done what you did today."

There was another silence.

"Are you still afraid of them? Heights I mean?"

Kel shook her head. "No. I was cured of that fear by being forced to climb down the outside of Balor's Needle…" She trailed off, remembering who she was speaking to.

"Because of my uncle." It was said so softly, Kel nearly missed it.

"Your uncle was…an angry boy. He became an angry man. Unfortunately for him, he was too inflexible to deal with the Chamber of the Ordeal."

"Do you think it will matter? To the Chamber? That I'm related to him?"

This didn't sound like a new worry. "Ella, you're nothing like your uncle. I can tell you that first hand. The Chamber doesn't care about bloodlines or where you come from. It looks for what's inside you; your flaws and your strengths."

She could almost hear the girl thinking this over. "What's it like? Being inside?"

Kel smiled. "You know I can't tell you that. All I can say is the Chamber is tough. You mustn't let it break you." The atmosphere around them had become heavy with the conversation. Kel attempted to lighten the mood. "But you shouldn't worry about that now. You have seven years to prepare yourself for that one night. And once it's over, it's over." _If you're lucky and the blasted thing doesn't take to setting you tasks to carry out afterwards. _She didn't add that though. There was no point scaring Ella even more.

The rain was slowing at last. There hadn't been any thunder or lightning for some time now and the air felt cooler.

"I'm sorry, by the way. About ruining your tunic when I…you know."

"Don't be," replied Kel. "It can be replaced. You can't."

Ella shifted her position on the log. "My Lady…I'd appreciate it if you didn't write to my parents and tell them about what happened today. I can tell them when I go back for the summer holidays. It might be better that way. Otherwise…they might not let me come back."

Kel bowed her head. "As you wish Page Brightleigh."

Ella huffed a sigh of relief. "Good. Thank you."

Leaning forward to add another piece of wood to the fire, Kel allowed herself to reflect for the first time that evening on what had happened. The events of the day had frightened her badly. If anything had happened to the pages, she would never be able to forgive herself. As it was, she kept going over and over in her head what she should have done differently.

And that was another page gone from the ranks. Thoras of Irismere would not be remaining with them, of that she was fairly certain. Two. She had lost two this year. It was probably for the best – neither Hannett nor Thoras would have made good knights, she could see that now. But the failure still smarted.

She needed to ask herself why they had failed. Was it something she had done? When Lord Wyldon had two failures, he had resigned. Should she do the same?

The huddle of warmth at her side had grown heavier. Kel looked down at Ella to see the girl had fallen asleep, head against Kel's arm.

Kel shook her head at her own folly. Ella wasn't a quitter. Neither was she, not ever, not once in her life had she given up on something. Was she really going to walk out on the pages after only three years? Could she do that to them?

"Lady Kel?"

She raised her eyes and saw Tobe, staring in front of her. He shook off the water that had gathered on his waxed coat during his watch. The welts on his face, caused by the female spidren's pink web, were already healing nicely thanks to Neal's special ointment.

He gave her a wry grin. "Still mothering people I see."

Kel glanced at Ella, before looking back at the young man. "I just can't help myself," she said, smiling. "It seems just like yesterday that I was mothering a certain blonde haired lad who couldn't even write his own name."

"We wouldn't have you any other way, milady." Tobe gave her a wink. He nodded at the sleeping girl. "How's the little'un doing after her ordeal?"

"She's going to be just fine, I believe. Day by day it amazes me how tough these youngsters are."

"And I s'pose no twelve year old you know ever speared a bandit through the guts?"

She grimaced. "I wish people would stop bringing that up. It was over twenty years ago now." That made her feel old. "I should get this one into her bed."

Tobe gave her a bow. "And I should be off to mine." He paused and eyed her. "And, forgive me, but by the looks of you milady, you should be off to yours as well."

"I think sleep will continue to evade me tonight," Kel shook her head. "Goodnight Tobe."

"Goodnight Lady Kel," as he went to walk off, Tobe turned back to look at her. "You were a good mother, milady. I don't think I tell you that enough."

She watched her young friend walk off in his Rider uniform, glad that he now he now had his back to her and so wouldn't see her bottom lip tremble a little.

Pulling herself together, Kel gave a sigh. For the second time that day, she picked up Ella – taking great care not to pull on her injured shoulder. The girl stirred but did not wake; instead she snuggled closer against Kel.

Kel stood there for a moment, gazing at the sleeping face of the little page, before carrying her back to her tent.


	15. Midwinter Feast

**Hellolovely readers. I'm sorry it has been a long time since I last updated this story: sadly September reared it's ugly head and I found myself swamped in work and various other things. **

**But, luckily for you (not so much for me) the first of this winter's cold germs have given me a whole day spare to spend writing the next chapter! I hope you enjoy reading it...I'm off to get myself some vitamin C!**

_15_

It almost seemed to Ella that she had gone to bed at the start of the summer holidays and woken up again at Midwinter of her second year of page training.

The summer after the spidren attack had been uneventful. A Stone Mountain family crisis – one of Ella's aunts had lost her husband in a battle with bandits – meant her mother had been absent for most of the time Ella was back at Brightleigh. She had enjoyed the warm, balmy weather with her father and a few of her younger cousins. Her oldest cousin, Yanis, had stopped by with his knight master, Esmond of Nicoline. He had heard tales of her first year of training and demanded them first hand from her own lips.

"Incredible," Yanis had remarked, shaking his head in disbelief. "You'll be rivalling the Lady Knight herself soon with your tales of adventure!"

Ella had hit her squire cousin on the arm playfully. "I doubt it. And don't repeat the gory details to Papa, will you? I gave him a slightly edited version of the spidren incident."

She practised her new combat skills when she could – in particular her hand-to-hand drills – trying to remember the advice the Lady Knight had given her. Forcing herself to train on her days off was hard; some days she was better motivated than others.

However, re-entering the page quarters that September, Ella was grateful for her work over the summer. As a second year page she had to don the dreaded weighted harnesses. For weeks Ella felt as though her spine was in danger of snapping at any moment.

There was another change – they were no longer the new pages. Ella and Ro stood there with the other older ones on the day the first-years started. Ella grinned inwardly at how scared they all seemed – until a closer inspection wiped the smile from her face. All the quaking new pages were taller than she was.

And they were all boys. No girls had started training in this year's cohort. It meant that Ella, Ro and Trianne of Vikison Lake would remain the only female pages this year. And Ella was _still_ the smallest page.

Ella decided not to sponsor any of the new ones, but Ro took on a chubby boy with curly brown hair – Wyldon of Jesslaw. He was the least scared looking of all the first years and practically bounced when Ro announced she would sponsor him. Ella glanced at Lady Keladry to see what she made of the over-excited boy, but was surprised to see the Training Mistress shake her head with the ghost of a wry grin on her lips.

Later, when the girls were alone, Ro explained why.

"Wyl's father used to be a page with Papa and Auntie Kel." She wrinkled her nose with distaste. "I was under strict instructions to look after the little twerp. Mithros, he's annoying!"

"Aw come one, he's not that bad," said Ella fairly. "He's just a little…energetic."

"Try spending several weeks with him, like I've had to do in the past when we've gone to visit his family. It wears you thin after a while."

"Hmm…" Ella paused. "Wyldon? Isn't that the same name as…"

"Lord Wyldon of Cavall, Auntie Kel and Papa's old training master?" supplied Ro. "It is. Our Wyl's his grandson. Sadly he inherited more of the Jesslaw side of the family. He must drive his grandpa _bonkers_."

And so the round ball of energy that was Wyl entered their group. The boy seemed impervious to tiredness, pain, teasing or being shouted at by his tutors – which happened quite a lot. Nothing dampened his spirits.

Ro was right. It did wear you thin after a little while.

Still, he often provided a welcome distraction from everyone else's trials and tribulations. Ella hadn't been mentally prepared for how much harder the second year was going to be. The first few months passed in a blur of brain melting academia and aching muscles. Every time Ella thought she was getting on top of things again, a new weight would be added to her harness.

So it was with a sense of relief that Midwinter suddenly sprang itself upon her, almost catching her by surprise. Ella normally spent the few weeks after her birthday counting down until Midwinter, but this year she barely registered the fact she had turned twelve.

Which was something else that irked her. Ella was one of the older pages in her year group – Ro and most of the others were still eleven – and yet she was _still_ dwarfed by all of them. The only solace she found was that the smallest page uniform _finally_ fit her without needing any adjustments. She had grown. Just not very much.

She stood in front of her mirror in that very uniform now, running a comb through her silky hair. As she was finishing, there was a knock at the door.

"Come in!"

Ro, Gerry and Wyl entered, all dressed as Ella was in their smartest uniforms.

"Goddess, are you not finished yet? We were waiting for you in my room but we got so bored!" remarked Ro, rolling her eyes.

"I haven't been _that_ long," Ella retorted. She gave herself one last look in the mirror.

"For Mithros' sake, you look fine!" said Ro. "Can we please go now?"

"She's right, you look very pretty," said Wyl, giving Ella one of his ear-to-ear grins. Ella blushed while Ro shook her head impatiently.

Gerry winked. "Maybe my dear cousin's just jealous."

Huffing, Ro stomped out of the room, followed more sedately by the others. As Wyl bounced off ahead to catch up with his sponsor, Ella fell into step with Gerry – no mean feat as every one of his strides were about three of hers.

"Feeling nervous?" he said, smiling down at her.

Ella shrugged. "A little."

She had missed Midwinter service last year and, even though she would have spent it stuck in the kitchens, she would have had a better idea of what to do. Now she was expected to serve actual people at tables, without spilling anything or tripping over her own feet. The prospect was extremely daunting.

Oh, and her family would be there. Not just the Brightleigh side either. Ella knew how most of her Stone Mountain relations felt about her being a page. She had managed to avoid seeing most of them over the past year. Now not only would her mother be here, but her aunts and uncles. There would be no escape.

She must have sighed, because Gerry nudged her and gave her a grin. "Don't look so worried. You'll be fine. And Wyl's right…you do look very pretty." He went a little pink and lengthened his stride.

Ella stopped mid-step. Had she heard right? Yes, she had. But that didn't mean anything. Gerry was just giving her a compliment. He was her friend. It hadn't meant anything when Wyl had said it earlier. So why did she feel so odd when Gerry told her she was pretty?

Shaking her head to get rid of such silly thoughts, Ella trotted after her friends.

xxx

"Wait! You need this as well," said Master Oakbridge, draping a towel over the crook of Ella's elbow. He stopped and scrutinised her, white eyebrows twitching into a frown. "Don't look so worried. You've memorised your position?"

"Yes Sir."

"And you know which people to serve first?"

"Yes Sir."

He tweaked her collar a little straighter. "Well then. You should be fine Page Brightleigh. Off you go."

Fine. She would be fine. Ella kept this thought in her head as she walked briskly across the crowded room. Faces and finery passed in a blur of colour. She didn't look; instead she focussed on where she was walking and not spilling the bowl of water she carried.

Eventually Ella reached her table. She stopped at the elbow of the noble at the head of the table – the most important – and presented the bowl with a bow.

"If My Lord pleases," she murmured.

"Oh, Aldren, look! It's little Ella!" said a lady's voice.

_Oh no_, thought Ella. When she had looked at the table plan earlier, her heart had sunk when she saw the name of the man at the head of the table. She couldn't refuse the assignment – that was not allowed – so Ella was relying on the fact she hadn't seen her Uncle in three years to save her from embarrassment.

What she wasn't relying on was her Uncle Aldren's wife, Evaline, a sweet if slightly simple woman, who had never been anything but lovely to Ella.

Raising her eyes timidly, Ella found the whole table was staring at her, but none of the eyes were so piercing as the ice blue ones of her mother's brother.

"Uncle," muttered Ella, forgetting she was a page for a moment in the face of that cold stare and bobbing a curtsey.

He didn't reply, just dipped his fingers into the bowl she was holding out to him and wiped them briskly on the towel.

Ella could feel her cheeks heat in a flush. She bowed her head and moved quickly onto her aunt.

"Ella dear, it's so nice to see you again after so long!" said Evaline, oblivious to the stony silence that had descended on the group around her. "Your mother mentioned last time she visited that you had embarked on page training. How have you been getting on?"

There was the sound of Uncle Aldren clearing his throat. Evaline heard and looked over at her husband. Whatever she saw in his face made her own pale. She demurely turned her eyes down onto her hands as she rinsed them in the bowl.

"I'm fine, thank you Aunt Evaline," said Ella quietly, before moving quickly on to the other guests at the table.

No one spoke the entire time she was there. The last lady she saw to was left with slightly damp hands, as Ella fled the table before she had finished wiping them on the towel.

As she made her way through the throngs of tables back to the serving hatch, Ella felt a hand on her elbow. A sick feeling of anxiety rushed through her as she turned to see who it was.

"Papa!"

Ella's father looked at her with concern. "Are you alright darling? I'm sitting a few tables down from the one you're serving at. Aldren hasn't said anything…untoward to you has he?"

"No," said Ella. "No, in fact he hasn't said anything at all. I may have got Auntie Evaline in trouble though."

Her father's expression darkened. It was a badly kept secret that Aldren thought he was at liberty to discipline his wife physically. "I doubt Aldren needs an excuse to make trouble." Seeing Ella's stricken expression, his tone softened. "Don't you worry about that. I'll sort something out. Just concentrate on your job, nothing else. You're doing so well."

Ella managed a small smile. "Thank you Papa."

He gave her arm a gentle squeeze. "Now go on, before I get you into trouble."

The serving hatch was chaos; a jumble of pages jostling for position as they waited for their first courses to be handed to them by the sweaty first years.

Ella found herself squeezed between Ro and Gerry.

"Are you all right?" said Ro, looking at Ella with concern. "You're very flushed."

"I'm fine," muttered Ella, trying to stop worrying about the guests she was serving and to ignore the fact she was pressed up against Gerry's hip. "I just want tonight to be over and done with is all."

Gerry snorted somewhere above her. "And then we've got another four nights of it. Lovely!"

Wincing inwardly, Ella accepted a tray piled with venison paté and weaved out of the mess of teenagers.

Steeling herself, Ella tried to adopt the same expressionless face she had seen on Lady Keladry so many times. It was harder than the Training Mistress made it appear.

The silence was still heavy over the table, as Ella served her uncle and now very subdued aunt, until one of the other nobles broke the silence.

"I'm surprised Aldren, I have to say, that your sister allowed her daughter, her _only_ daughter at that, to take up such a…career." The last word was said with more than a hint of a sneer.

_Great_, thought Ella,_ not only do I have to contend with _him_ but he's sitting at a table full of conservatives._

"And with what's training them at the moment as well. That _woman_…I hesitate to say the word, lest I offend the ladies I sit with at present," here the man, a toad-faced specimen, gave a nod to the ladies at his table.

Ella could feel her cheeks burning again, only this time not from embarrassment.

Her uncle finally stirred himself to speak. "I couldn't agree more with you, My Lord. Although I have to say my sister did try and talk her husband out of allowing this comedy to continue. However, Elbert is a progressive and a fierce one at that. It pains me to think that our father allowed Lorette to marry into such a family as the Brightleighs with their peasant loving ideals and strange notions on women." He gave Ella a hard look. "I just hope My Lord of Brightleigh realises that the girl's chances for a decent marriage are ruined."

As Ella put the venison in front of the lady to the left of the toad-faced man, she realised her hand was shaking.

The man snorted. "That's certainly true Aldren. I mean, have you _seen_ what most "Lady Knights" turn out like? She'll either end up scarred for life before she's of whelping age, or looking more like a man than most of us at this table."

_Don't listen, just concentrate on the food. The food. Just put the food on his plate. Don't look at him or listen to him._

"Wouldn't you agree, my dear?" Toad-face grabbed her wrist as she went to put the paté in front of him. "Such a shame as well, a pretty little thing like you. There's still time to rethink. I have a younger son that might even be dim enough to look past your faults, if you wanted me to speak to your father."

Ella wasn't sure exactly how her arm ignored the frantic warnings of her brain. But as the man let go of her wrist, her hand opened and the venison paste landed squarely down the front of his tunic.

The man leapt to his feet. "Why you clumsy little…"

"Oh dear!" said Ella loudly, putting the empty tray on the table. "I'm terribly sorry My Lord. Here, let me help you wash it off." And even though her rational mind was now flashing with all sorts of warnings, Ella grabbed the heavy jug of water that was on the table with both hands.

She made sure that not only toad-face got wet, but her uncle got a good splashing as well.

"What…what is the meaning of this shameless…" Aldren was so enraged, he could barely form words. There were shocked mutterings from everyone else at the table. By now others had noticed the commotion and were turning in their seats to get a better look.

"I can only apologise Uncle. I must have been overcome by the generosity of My Lord's offer of marriage to his son. After all, you can't really blame a girl in my situation for acting rashly. That's what we do, isn't it?" Ella bowed to the rest of the table. "My Lord and Ladies, I am sorry for this undignified accident. I shall go inform Master Oakbridge who will send some servants to deal with the mess immediately."

With that, Ella turned on her heel; but not before she caught Evaline's eye.

Although the gods only knew what sort of punishments would be in store for her, Ella held her head up high as she walked back to the serving hatch. The tiny smile on her aunt's lips had been worth it.


	16. Punishment

_16_

Having been a page for a year and a half Ella had become very adept at reading the subtle changes in the Training Mistress' face.

Yamani training made Lady Keladry's expressions sometimes very hard to read, especially when she was trying to keep her emotions in check. But Ella could see now, from the slight flare of the nostrils and the narrowing of the hazel eyes that the Lady Knight was _furious_.

Those hazel eyes were now fixed on Ella's face. Ella managed to hold her gaze for a few seconds, before having to refocus her own stare somewhere on the wall behind the Training Mistress.

"Well?" The voice that was battle trained and could cut through the noise of a herd of battle horses was now very soft.

Trying to ignore the trickle of sweat that was running down her back, Ella stood straighter. "My Lady?"

"_Don't_, Brightleigh. You know _exactly_ what I am talking about. Drop the innocent act."

Ella flinched a little. "My Lady…I…they…it was an accident."

"Accident?" It took all of Ella's willpower not to crumple as the Lady Knight stood and leant forward, bracing her fists on her desk. She seemed very tall all of a sudden. "Brightleigh, I am warning you, you are _this_ close to dismissal right now. I want the truth."

The words were stuck in Ella's throat. She opened her mouth a few times but, before she found her voice, there was a knock at the door.

It opened a crack and a servant stuck his head into the room. "Lady Keladry? There's someone who wants to see you."

"Ask them to wait outside please. I shouldn't be too long."

The man looked a little pained. "Erm, My Lady, I don't think – " He was interrupted as two people pushed past him and shut the door in his face.

If Ella's heart wasn't low enough already, now it sunk all the way to her boots as her mother sat herself down imperiously on the only spare chair in the office. Uncle Aldren positioned himself behind his sister.

Both of them were smiling.

xxx

To say Kel was a little taken aback when Lorette of Brightleigh and her equally odious brother swept into her office, would be putting it mildly. However, she allowed none of her apprehension to show on her face.

"My Lady of Brightleigh. My Lord of Stone Mountain. What can I help you with?" As if that wasn't obvious, but Kel was not about to make this easy.

She glanced at Ella. The girl had turned a delicate shade of green as her mother and uncle had walked into the room.

"Yes…Lady Knight," Aldren said the words like they hurt his teeth. "You can help us. Or rather, you can help Ellabelle."

"My daughter, as I'm sure by now you have become aware, is simply not suitable for…for this…way of life," expanded Lorette, waving a hand at Kel. "Although she will deny it, she is from far too noble stock and is far too delicate."

Kel raised an eyebrow at the not-so-subtle dig at herself.

"I think her little display tonight was proof she is finding the life of a page…taxing," said Aldren. He moved around so he was squarely in front of Kel, a move clearly meant to be intimidating. He was less like Joren than his sister was; the hair and eyes were the same, but he was heavier set and his features were blunter. Kel knew he had taken over Stone Mountain on the death of Buchard some years ago. She also knew that he was just as conservative as his father and brother had been, with an added dash of insecurity as a younger son who had only risen to power through the misfortune of others.

"I take your point," replied Kel, calmly, folding her arms. "However, as I'm sure you are aware, Ellabelle is standing with us in the room. I believe she can speak for herself. Page Brightleigh?"

Ella blinked, looking shocked to be addressed.

"Page Brightleigh, do you feel like the life of a page is too 'taxing' on you?"

The girl stared at Kel open mouthed for a moment before recovering herself surprisingly quickly. "No, My Lady. I do not. In fact, I wish for nothing else than to remain in page training. If I am to be allowed to do so."

Kel supressed a smile. She was never really going to dismiss Ella; but it did the girl no harm to sweat over it in light of the disturbance she had caused at the Midwinter Feast. She needed to realise that one could not simply drop dinner all down a conservative noble and expect to get away with it lightly.

"Well, in that case your punishment will be to spend the rest of the Midwinter festival working in the kitchens with the first years. You will not be allowed to go into the city for the next month. You will clean armour every Sunday for the next four weeks. You will write me an essay on how a page should conduct themselves in social situations. Are we clear?"

The relief on the girl's face was palpable. "Yes, My Lady."

"Servant's work!" Lorette rose gracefully to her feet. "You think to make my daughter work as a peasant?"

"No, My Lady. I think to make your daughter a worthy knight. The first and most important lesson is to be able to take hard work."

"Well, this is not something that will be of concern to you any more, Lady Keladry," sniffed Lorette. "We have already said, Ellabelle will not be continuing her training here."

"I have discussed the matter with my sister," put in Aldren. "And I have agreed that Ellabelle will come and live at Stone Mountain with myself and my wife. We have three children, two of them daughters, albeit slightly younger. I feel that time spent with…more agreeable children, would be beneficial to her future as a proper noble lady."

Kel opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted.

"_What_!" Ella's pale faced was now flushed. "You _can't_ do that! You can't make me!"

"Ellabelle, really, a little decorum. Your uncle's offer is very kind, particularly given your…wilfulness." Lorette's smile was cruel.

"We'll soon have _that_ gone, don't you worry sister," said Aldren. Kel did not like the look he was giving his niece.

"My Lord and Lady, I really think that you need to consider Ella's feelings in this matter – " she was cut off by a snort from Lorette.

"Do not presume, _Keladry_, that you know what is best for my daughter. Besides, I think you'll find your time as Training Mistress might be more limited than you think."

That brought Kel up short. "I…what do you mean by that?"

Aldren grinned and stepped closer to the desk. "Two drop outs last year, Lady Knight. A couple of near fatal accidents. It's not a great record."

She had a snappy reply to that. She did. It was there, hovering at the back of her throat. It just wouldn't come out.

Aldren raised his eyebrow. "How many new female pages _did_ you get starting this year?"

This Kel would not deign to answer.

"_I_ heard My Lord of Darkamelin say that he was thinking about letting his daughter go for her shield, but…well, after _recent_ events he said the convent would be safer for her. I have to say, I am inclined to agree." Lorette ran her perfectly manicured nails over Kel's desk.

Once more Kel was interrupted by Ella.

"Oh for Mithros' sake Mother! Don't pretend to get all sentimental," snapped the girl, her eyes flashing furiously. "This had nothing to do with my safety and you know it. It's all about the Stone Mountain honour. That's what it's _always_ about."

"Ellabelle, don't speak to me…"

"I _will_ and you can't stop me. You can't make me leave here. You certainly can't make me go and live with _him_," spat Ella, glaring at her uncle. "Where's Papa? What has he got to say about this?"

"Your father is in agreement with this," said Aldren, giving Lorette a sideways look.

"Bull!" shouted Ella. "I bet he doesn't even know you're here!"

"That's _enough_." Aldren reached out and grabbed Ella by her upper arm.

She was too quick for him. As he grasped her arm, Ella snapped her foot out and up, striking him on the kneecap. He cursed and let go of her.

Dodging round him, Ella ran for the door. Before any of the adults in the room could react, she had flung herself outside. They heard her footsteps pounding down the corridor.

"That little wildcat!" snarled Aldren, rubbing his knee. "I told you so many times, Lorette, you did not discipline that girl enough."

"Not for lack of trying," growled Lorette in return. "My fool of a husband would always get in the way with his soft notions."

The comment made Kel get a grip on herself. "I think we're done here, My Lord, My Lady. I think I shall have to speak to Lord Brightleigh before I can even think about releasing Ellabelle from page service."

Aldren gave her a look that would have made a weaker woman quail. Kel was not that sort of woman. She returned his stare evenly, until he cursed. "Mark my words, _knight_, your days here are numbered."

Kel watched them leave, holding herself still until the two of them had left the room. Only then did she allow herself to slump momentarily.

The servant poked his head into the room again. "Lady Keladry…are you all right?"

"Yes…yes fine, thank you," lied Kel. She rubbed a hand over her eyes. "Could you please find Lord Brightleigh and tell him I wish to speak with him?"

"Of course," the man bowed and left the room.

Kel did not think that Lorette and Aldren would give up on Ella so easily. She needed to speak with Ella's father. But first, she needed to find Ella before her mother and uncle did.

xxx

It was very windy up here. Ella felt the chill air snatch at her clothes, cooling the sweat on her skin. There was a railing that ran around the edge of the platform; Ella sat on the floor with her back to it, hugging her knees.

She didn't know why she had chosen this place. She had just run from the room as fast as she could. Her feet had led her to the courtyard and she had stood at the base, staring up into the dark sky. She had expected the door to be locked. Ro had told her that since…since what had happened before…the king had ordered the door always to be locked.

It wasn't locked.

They wouldn't take her. They wouldn't take her. She wouldn't let them. Papa wouldn't let them. Lady Keladry…

Would Lady Keladry let them? She had said she wouldn't. But then, before, she had been so cross when Ella had messed up. She had threatened to dismiss her. Maybe they would talk her round. Maybe they would persuade her that Ella needed to leave and go and live with…

Tears burned her eyes. She rubbed them with the heels of her hand angrily. She wouldn't go with them. She would die before she went to live with _him._

A noise. Footsteps. That couldn't be possible. No one knew she was here. Ella stood; her grasping hands felt the railings behind her. She gripped them tightly. They wouldn't take her.

The door opened, struggling against the wind. It had been almost impossible for Ella to ease her way through it. Maybe this person would have no luck.

She eyed the gap to her right, where the world fell away into blackness below her. She would go that way if she had to. They wouldn't take her.

A hand holding a lamp came through. Ella's eyes squinted against the sudden light – she had made the climb in the dark, feeling her way rather than risk being spotted. The lamp was followed by a large hulking shape.

Not her mother or her uncle. But who?

"Ella?" Lady Keladry's voice sounded worried.

Ella tensed. "Here."

The Lady Knight lifted the lamp and walked forward a few steps, stopping when she saw how close Ella was to the outer stair. There was a fine sheen of sweat on her forehead. Her face looked pale.

"How…how did you find me?" said Ella, tightening her grip on the railings behind her.

Lady Keladry gave a half smile. "I checked your room, Ro's and the other pages. I've got pretty much everyone looking for you. Then I thought to myself…where's the last place anyone would look?" She glanced around. "How did you get in?"

"The door was unlocked." Ella shifted her feet. "I'm sorry."

"What for?"

Ella shrugged. "Are you going to kick me out?"

The Lady Knight shook her head. "No. Do you want me to?"

"No."

"Then I won't. You have never given me any reason to doubt your ability – in fact…" Keladry cocked her head. "I was rather impressed with your little combat display tonight." She became serious again. "However, you still have a lot to learn. No matter what is said to you and what feelings you might have towards people, you must learn to control yourself. Understood?"

"Yes My Lady."

There was a tense silence.

"Ella," Lady Keladry was speaking as if to a spooked horse. "Come away from the railing."

She didn't move straight away. "Are you going to let them take me away?"

The Training Mistress shook her head. "Of course I'm not. And neither is your father. I spoke with him earlier. You were right. He didn't know what your mother and uncle were up to. He's very worried about you."

It sounded too good to be true. "Mother and Uncle Aldren won't give up you know."

Lady Keladry smiled. "And neither will we. Now come on. You're making me nervous, standing over there."

Ella glanced at the gap that lead to the outer stairs. "I thought you weren't scared of heights anymore?"

"I'm not," Lady Keladry shuddered. "It doesn't mean I have to like them." She held a hand out to Ella.

The girl shivered. It was cold and she was wearing only her indoor page uniform. She walked towards the Training Mistress and grasped her hand. It was large and rough and a little clammy.

"You're going to be a real trouble maker, aren't you?" commented the Lady Knight, looking down at Ella with a cocked eyebrow.

Ella blushed. "Seems that way." She paused. "What did my uncle mean? When he said that you're not going to be Training Mistress for much longer?"

Lady Keladry paused. "I have no idea. Come on. It's a long walk down." She let go of Ella's hand to yank the door open against the wind.

When they were inside the stairwell, Ella stopped with a foot on the first step. "Does this mean I still have to do my punishment work?"

The Lady Knight gave her a look.

"Fine!" Ella held up her hands. "It was worth a try."


	17. Feelings

**It's been a while and here is a short(ish) chapter, which is kind of a "bridging the gap" one.** **Thanks for the reviews, in particular "idleness" and for "Ashandarei" who made the comment about Stone Mountain being stupid. Yes. Yes they certainly are a family of idiots. At least they are in my story! :o)**

**Anyhoo, hope you enjoy!**

_17_

"She was _where?_"

Kel grimaced as she poured herself a much needed cup of green tea. "Balor's Needle."

"What in Mithros' name…?" Neal shook his head. "Not the first time a member of that family has forced you to make that climb."

"Neal…" She gave him a warning glance.

"I'm just saying!" he held his hands up in self-defence.

Placing the teapot carefully back on the desk, Kel cradled her cup in hands that still held a slight tremor. Climbing the tower had brought back all sorts of unwelcome memories – she may have lost her paralysing fear of heights, but it had been difficult to force herself to take the first few steps on that winding staircase. If a servant hadn't mentioned seeing the small page run that way, coupled with finding the lower door ajar, Kel wouldn't have even considered it.

Neal leant back on his chair and ran his fingers through thinning hair. "So, what are you going to do about Ella?"

"She's got her punishment work for the next month. I've added another essay on top of that for being out of bounds," Which was a mild way of putting the hair-raising climb to the top of the Needle, "As for her family…I spoke to Elbert, who wasn't best pleased that his wife and brother-in-law had tried to go behind his back. He's apparently sent Lorette home to Brightleigh for the duration of Midwinter."

"I'll bet that went down well," drawled Neal. "What about Aldren?"

Despite herself, Kel wrinkled her nose in distaste. "The man makes my skin crawl. I'm going to keep my eye on him while he's still at the Palace."

Her friend shook his head. "You know that the Stump would have sent Ella home like a shot, just for what she did at the Midwinter feast, let alone climbing the Needle. You're getting soft in your old age Mindelan."

She scowled at him. "I'm not going to send her away Neal. If I do, what message does that send to other girls who want to try for their shield? Or their families? It's bad enough that we didn't get any new female pages this year, without dismissing one of the ones we _do _have."

"Is this why you've been so grumpy lately? You think that families aren't allowing their daughters to try for page training?"

"Well, you tell me why the numbers have dropped so much in the last few years."

"You don't think…" Neal looked at her, his green eyes worried. "You don't think it's because of _you_ do you?" When she didn't reply, he exclaimed, "Kel, that's ridiculous! You're their idol!"

Feeling her cheeks heat, Kel replied, "That's sweet Neal, but I'm probably most certainly_ not_ an idol to some of the families of these girls. 'Join page training and be just like Lady Knight Keladry!' I'm probably the worst nightmare for some of the parents. And now I'm the one actually training their daughters."

"And you're training _my_ daughter," said Neal staunchly. "And I couldn't think of anyone I'd rather have doing it. Nor would Yuki, if she were still here," he added in a quieter voice.

She smiled sadly back at him. "Thank you Neal. You're always a good friend. And I hope you're right." Kel sighed. "I don't know what I can do differently."

"Nothing. If you have a fault, it's that you care too much Kel. Don't let them grind you down. And take care with that Brightleigh girl. You don't want to make any powerful enemies."

That made Kel laugh. "I think it was too late for that twenty years ago, Neal."

xxx

Ella walked quietly over to the door and pressed her ear against it. Whoever it was, they were still outside.

"Ella? We know you're in there. Let us in!"

She breathed a sigh of relief and unlocked the door. Ro, Gerry and Wyl stood there.

"Well?" asked Ro, eyebrows raised.

Ella gave a small smile and moved aside to let her friends in to her room. She locked the door behind them.

"Feeling a little paranoid?" asked Gerry, looking half amused and half concerned.

"My mother and uncle just threatened to take me out of page training. I think I'm allowed to be a little paranoid." Ella flopped onto her bed.

"But, your father and Auntie Kel wouldn't let them, surely," said Ro, an appalled note in her voice. She sat on the desk chair, while Wyl plopped down on the floor. Gerry hovered uncertainly at the foot of the bed.

"No, but I don't trust Mother or Uncle Aldren as far as I could throw them. Papa came by earlier, with Lady Keladry, and they told me not to worry about it, but…" Ella sat up and pulled a face at her friends. No one said anything for a while. Even Wyl look unusually grave.

"So…Balor's Needle?" said Ro with a tilt of the head. "What made you run up there?"

Ella blushed as the others looked at her quizzically. "I don't know."

"It was jolly brave of you!" piped up Wyl. "Papa told me the story of how Lady Keladry had to go up there when they were still pages to rescue her maid! You wouldn't catch me up there!"

Wincing, Ella didn't reply. She had hoped no one would bring that up. In truth she regretted running off as she had; now she was back in her warm page quarters and common sense was once more ruling her head.

Seeing her discomfort, Gerry sat on the edge of the bed and put his hand on hers. "It's done now, no point dwelling on it. How much punishment work did you get?"

"Enough to make the next month a misery," Ella pulled a face. "I deserve it, I guess. At least I get to hide in the kitchens for the rest of Midwinter."

Ro grinned suddenly. "I wish I'd seen it for myself. It must have been a beautiful sight, you chucking the first course down that stuffed-shirt's lap!"

"Don't!" said Ella, hiding her face in her hand but chuckling nonetheless. "I'm trying to forget about it!"

Wyl let out a cavernous yawn, which prompted Ro to say, "Bed for you, Jesslaw. We've still got four nights of service to get through, and if they're all as exciting as tonight then we'll need the sleep."

"But _Ro…_"

"Bed!" replied Ro, sternly, "As your sponsor, that's an order." She stood and heaved the boy to his feet. Ella and Gerry laughed as she unlocked the door and bade them goodnight, dragging her unwilling charge behind her.

"I should probably go too," said Gerry, giving Ella a smile.

"It is rather late," she replied, awkward. "It's probably past lights out."

It dawned on them both that Gerry's hand was still resting on top of Ella's. What had seemed a friendly gesture a moment ago, had changed in a heartbeat.

She wanted to move her hand, as it was starting to feel a bit sweaty. But Ella suddenly seemed incapable of motion. She was left, sitting there like a piece of wood, staring back into Gerry's eyes.

Gerry's very, _very_ blue eyes.

He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped as footsteps outside the open door made them jump.

Ro stuck her head round the door. "Gerry? If Auntie Kel catches us still up, she'll get her punishment thinking cap on. I wouldn't like to get in her bad books tonight of all nights."

"Yep, coming, just…just…coming." He snatched his hand back, leapt off the bed and practically ran out of the door, past his cousin.

Looking after him and then back at Ella, who was still sitting in the same position. "What was _that_ about?"

Ella blinked and looked at her friend. "Nothing! Nothing at all."

Ro narrowed her eyes, her mouth twisting in thought, but she said nothing as she left Ella's room, closing the door behind her.

Springing off the bed, Ella jogged to the door and turned the key in the lock. She turned to face the room, her legs folding underneath her as her back slid down the door. She looked at the hand Gerry had held, half expecting it to be glowing with heat. It wasn't.

Ella laid her forehead against that hand and closed her eyes. All the worries she had about what would happen tomorrow were forgotten for a moment, as she concentrated on how warm his touch and the look in his eyes had been.


	18. Revelations

**Aaaaaargh! Writer's block! To the extreme! Which has produced (oddly) a rather long chapter that has taken me AGES to write!**

**Thanks for everyone still reading/reviewing! As ever I own nothing Tamora Pierce-esque.**

_18_

"Miss? Miss Ella?"

A gentle hand on her shoulder brought her back to wakefulness. Ella cracked her eyelids open and lifted her head gingerly.

"Have you been here all night Miss?" Milly's round face held an anxious look.

Peeling a piece of paper off her cheek, Ella sat upright in her desk chair and winced as her head protested at the sudden movement. She squinted at the maid.

Milly blew out her cheeks and shook her head. She moved over to the fire and started to light it; every clatter and bump was like a lightning bolt through Ella's skull.

The next thing the young page knew she was being half lifted her off the chair and onto the bed. A cup of something steaming was put in her hands.

"Blow on it, it's hot."

Ella did and sipped, feeling her head clear a little as she did so. The tea was fragrant, slightly spicy and had something in it she couldn't place.

"Thank you," Ella said quietly.

"T'is my job, Miss," smiled Milly. The maid cocked her head as she looked at the girl, hesitated, before placing a hand on her forehead. Ella felt a soothing warmth race down her neck, loosening the muscles. As Milly took her hand away, Ella saw a fading glow around it.

"I didn't know you had the Gift," commented Ella.

"Not much to speak of," shrugged Milly in answer. "I can just do simple healings." Her plump cheeks had gone faintly red and she moved quickly away from Ella.

"It's more than I can do. Have you had any training? Didn't you want to become a healer or something?"

Milly didn't answer this; instead she continued her normal routine, crashing around Ella's room.

"Milly?" Ella felt worried at the normally cheerful young woman's sudden change in demeanour. "I'm sorry if I offended you."

As she raised her head to look at Ella, there was something akin to sadness in Milly's soft brown eyes. "You haven't Miss. It's just…" She gave a half smile. "I _did_ want to become a healer. Ma didn't have the money for me to continue the training. With my Pa gone and the littl'uns to feed, I had to go into service. O'course it's better now, since I got this job here. The work's nicer and the pay's a bit more. Who knows? Maybe one day…"

"Oh Milly…" whispered Ella. "I'm sorry."

The older girl looked down for a moment then seemed to mentally shake herself. "Never mind; can't complain." She flashed Ella a raised eyebrow. "Don't you worry about me Miss. Focus on yourself – you're working too hard. That's the second time this week I've found you still at your desk in the morning. Tell them that trains you to go easier on you!" And with that, she bustled out.

Ella was left, staring at the door, until the sound of the bell broke through her thoughts. With a groan, she pulled herself up off the bed and started to get ready for the day ahead.

xxx

The clatter of wood against wood filled the hall. Kel wandered between the pages, correcting grips and giving pointers on how to improve certain moves. The weather just after Midwinter had turned nasty – no snow this year, just horrible freezing rain. Kel didn't think even Lord Wyldon would have been mean enough to send the pages out in that and so had moved training inside for the last couple of weeks.

_Besides, we've had enough bouts of cold and flu this year. Adding pneumonia to the list won't make life any easier, _she thought as she deftly caught the staff of one of the first years who thought swinging the wooden pole around his head was an appropriate battle move.

However, the youngsters were starting to show signs of being cooped up for too long. Minor quarrels were breaking out over the most stupid of things.

Sighing, Kel eyed up a couple of third years who were starting to snipe at one another. Glancing out of the window, she made an executive decision.

"Pages! Halt!"

The pages moved until they were in a line facing her, standing to attention with their staffs held straight by their sides.

Except Ella. The girl was leaning on her staff, looking for all the world like she was going to sleep on her feet.

Kel couldn't help but give an inward smile, though she did feel a tad guilty about the amount of punishment work she had heaped on the page. Still, Kel reasoned with herself, Ella had gotten of lightly considering what had happened.

"I think the weather has cleared up enough for us to venture out. Staffs away and meet me at the top of the Eastern stairs in two minutes."

There was a chorus of groans. Kel scowled at the pages. "_Move it!_"

_Mithros,_ she thought, crossly, _I wouldn't have _dreamed_ of groaning at Lord Wyldon. None of us would. Kids these days are so undisciplined. _

xxx

Ella tried to stand as close to Ro as possible, hoping to gain some body heat from her friend. It wasn't working.

"S-seriously think A-Auntie Kel is g-getting more sadistic in her old age," grumbled Ro between chattering teeth. "It's f-flippin' f-freezing up here!"

Ella didn't reply, although she agreed heartily. She just hugged her arms more tightly around herself as the fine drizzle soaked through her outer practise clothes to her skin.

"You won't be so cold in a minute," muttered Gerry darkly, wiping his rain off his face.

The door at the top of the stairs to the curtain wall swung open and the Training Mistress strode out. She raised an eyebrow at the huddled knot of teenagers. "Don't just stand there. Start running!"

Ella usually liked Lady Keladry a great deal. Today she would have quite gladly pushed the knight over the top of the curtain wall as she forced her already leaden legs into a trot.

Icy wind struck the pages' faces as they rounded the corner onto the northern part of the wall. The light drizzle of moments before turned into sleet.

Normally at the front of the group, Ella was lagging at the back today with Ro and Gerry; all three of them trying to run behind one of the larger fourth year pages who was lending some protection from the elements. As she ran, Ella imagined all the horrible pranks she could persuade her friends to play on the Training Mistress.

They had been running for nearly twenty minutes when Ro, jogging along beside Ella with her eyes half closed against the freezing rain, suddenly pitched forward with a cry. The stone was slippery and her foot had gone out from under her.

"Ro!" Ella staggered to a halt and crouched down next to her friend. "Are you all right?"

The other girl was clutching her knee, face screwed up in pain.

"Lady Keladry!" Ella cried. The Training Mistress was somewhere at the front of the joggers. She looked up to see Gerry at the back of the group of pages pause to look round. Seeing the problem he started to sprint to the front. Moments later, the Lady Knight was kneeling by her gods-daughter.

"R...Queenscove? What happened?"

"I…I slipped…" Ro was struggling to hold back tears. "I landed on m-my knee…"

"Can you stand?" The Training Mistress looked up and saw the other pages standing around. "Keep running on the spot! You'll cramp otherwise."

With Lady Keladry supporting one side, Ella took her friend's other arm. Together they hauled Ro to her feet. She tried to put weight on her left leg and gasped.

"Right, healers' wing with you, Page Queenscove," said Lady Keladry, not quite managing to hide the worry in her eyes. She glanced around. "Masbolle, help Brightleigh take her down please. The rest of you keep going. I'll catch you up. And _be careful_."

With a series of grumbles, the pages jogged off. Gerry moved around to support Ro's right side.

The Training Mistress hesitated. "Will you be alright with the stairs?"

"We'll manage My Lady" replied Gerry, sounding a little too eager to get into the warm.

Lady Keladry looked at Ella. The girl nodded. "Very well then. I expect you two at lunch on time. Ryoku…I'll look in on you later."

Without waiting for a reply, the knight jogged off after her charges.

Ella sighed and shifted so Ro's weight was more comfortable on her shoulder. "Come on, there's a set of stairs just over there. We'll take it slowly."

It wasn't easy; every motion brought a whimper from Ro, despite their best efforts at being careful. Ella was sweating by the time they had made it to the bottom of the stairs.

The healer's wing had never seemed so far away, but eventually they arrived. A passing apprentice stopped and raised an eyebrow at them.

"You pages…we spend more time patching you up…" he sighed and gestured behind him. "There's a spare room through there. Pop yourself down and I'll send someone over."

"My father…" Ro was looking very pale. "Is my father around?"

The apprentice squinted at her. "Oh, you're Sir Nealan's daughter. He's been called away this morning I'm afraid. He should be back in a while. You'll have to make do with someone else for now." And with that he bustled off.

In the small room, Gerry and Ella managed to set Ro down on the bed. She leant back against the wall, eyes shut.

"We'll wait with you until the healer comes," said Ella, feeling worried for her usually stoic friend.

Ro nodded, but Ella was horrified to see her chin tremble as tears forced their way out from underneath her closed eyelids. Ro _never_ cried. Ella had seen her close a few times but she wasn't one to mope or weep over things. Certainly not injuries; Ella often thought Ro was made of leather the way she brushed things off.

"I want my Pa," Ro whispered.

Gerry looked at Ella. "We said we wouldn't be late for lunch," he muttered, barely audible. He'd clearly never had to deal with a weeping girl before. Ella jerked her head at him to go outside.

"We're going to look for the healer. We'll be back in a minute," she said, giving Ro's shoulder a squeeze.

Out in corridor Gerry shook his head. "Boy, she must have _really_ hurt her knee!"

"Sound a little more sympathetic, please," frowned Ella, scanning the corridor.

"Well…come on. She's bashed her knee and it's like the world's coming to an end!"

Ella turned to glare at him, her hands on her hips. "How do you know she hasn't done some real damage? She went down really hard on a _stone floor_."

"Well, let's be thankful she wasn't rescuing anyone from giants or anything. Mithros forbid she bashes her knee then!"

Ella was left speechless, her mouth hanging open. "What exactly are you trying to say?" she spluttered, finally finding her voice. "Are you trying to say Ro's not going to be a good knight? Because she's a _girl_ I suppose?"

"No," Gerry blinked, as if he was surprised. "No…of course not. I'm just saying she needs to toughen up if – "

He was interrupted. "Gods Gerry, sometimes you can be a real arse!"

"Woah, hang on, I didn't mean…I was just…"

"Oh, go to lunch," snapped Ella, irritably. "I'm going to wait with Ro until her father gets here."

"Ella, come on. She can cope on her own; you just finished your punishment work _today_, seriously…"

"Just go Gerry." Ella folded her arms and turned away.

She heard him huffing down the corridor, but refused to turn around until his footsteps had faded.

Another set of footsteps, a heavier set, made her twist her head. Relief swamped her.

"Sir Nealan!" Ella cried. "Thank goodness!"

The tall man removed his rain-sprinkled hat. "Ella? What's the matter?"

It took seconds to explain and even less time for Sir Nealan to be at his daughter's side, green magic glowing over her knee. "Well, you've damaged your lateral collateral ligament. I'm going to put a slow healing on it, but it will take a few days of rest before you're up and about again."

"Yes Papa," Ro nodded miserably.

Sir Nealan regarded his daughter. "Another thing that _might_ help your knee mend is a world famous Queenscove hug. What do you think?"

"Yes please!" said Ro, bursting into tears again. It was at that point Ella removed herself from the room, feeling as though she _really_ needed to be elsewhere. If she hurried, she might just make it in time for lunch…

"Ella! Wait!"

Surprised, she stopped to look back at her friend's father, who had followed her into the corridor. "Sir Nealan?"

He smiled down at her. "I just wanted to thank you for being such a good friend to my daughter. She's lucky to have you."

Ella could feel her cheeks start to heat. "I…well, I haven't really…"

"She always tries to make it seem like nothing fazes her," continued Sir Nealan. "She's just like her mother in that respect. And her gods-mother, come to think of it, it can't all be genetic, Mithros knows Kel doesn't let anyone know when she's feeling the pressure…"

"Sir?" Ella was starting to wonder if he was going to come to a point soon.

"What I'm trying to say, is I'm glad she has the support of her friends. Ro sometimes let's everything build until it's too much. It's good to know she has a shoulder to cry on if I'm not around." He stopped and studied the small girl. "Speaking of which…are you alright? You look awfully tired."

"I'm fine Sir, thank you." When Sir Nealan raised one of his beautiful eyebrows at her, Ella grinned. "Well, I will be. I finished my punishment work today."

That got a laugh from him. When he'd composed himself, the tall healer looked thoughtful. "Well…you know where I am if you ever need anything. I mean that."

"Thank you Sir," replied Ella. An idea occurred to her and she added, a little nervously, "Actually, there is something you could maybe help me with…"

xxx

Kel had just finished the lunchtime prayer, when Neal strode in, accompanying Ella. Kel had already grilled a rather sullen looking Gerard on Ro's wellbeing; but she was relieved nonetheless to see her best friend was back and had obviously seen to his daughter himself.

Having sent the little page to get some lunch, Neal nodded to the page serving that he'd be requiring food and plonked himself next to Kel.

"Have you seen Ro? How is she?"

"She's damaged her knee quite badly, but I've given her something to sleep the pain off and put a slow healing on it. She'll be out of action for a few days." His brisk tone did not quite hide the worry in his eyes.

Kel felt awful. "Neal, I'm sorry, it's my fault, I should have realised the wall might be slippery, I – "

He cut her off. "Kel, you have to stop worrying every time one of the pages gets a bump or a scrape. Goddess, think of the injuries we picked up! They're training to be knights; they can't be worrying about whether the floor's slippery if they're protecting the walls of a fort. It's something they have to expect. I knew that when I let Ro go for her knight's training." Neal took a deep breath. "Doesn't mean I have to like it, however…"

Suppressing a grin, Kel squeezed his elbow gratefully. She glanced over at where Ella had taken her place next to Gerry – the two of them were studiously ignoring each other, with Ella occasionally shooting a withering glare in the boy's direction.

"She reminds me more and more of you each day, you know," commented Neal.

"Who? Ro?" Kel was surprised.

He chuckled. "Not as much as you might think, that girl's a Queenscove through and through. I meant Ella. She reminds me a lot of you."

Kel raised her eyebrows. "Really? I think I was more than twice her size by my second year." Not to mention she would never have let her feelings show as much as the girl was doing right at that moment – Gerry had just tried to speak to her and Ella had turned her back to him.

"Certain things. Stubbornness. A tendency to get into trouble." Neal grinned wickedly.

Kel refused to dignify that with an answer. Neal's grin only widened.

"She's also got a bit of your need to help the helpless. Not only did she risk more punishment work by staying with Ro longer than she had to, I think I've also acquired an apprentice healer by the name of Milly."

"Who?" Kel blinked.

"Exactly."

Leaning her chin on her hand, Kel studied her friend. "For someone who warned me to be careful when dealing with, I quote, 'that Brightleigh girl', you're starting to sound quite fond of her."

Neal rubbed his nose. "I am aren't I? Dammit." He sighed. "Well, we certainly can't let her scumbag family have her back now, can we?"

Forgetting herself momentarily, Kel laughed and clapped him on the back. "No we can't Queenscove. No we certainly can't."


	19. Stone Mountain

**A bit of a short chapter, but hopefully an intriguing one, from a different PoV...**

_19_

The sun was low over the manor house at Stone Mountain, when Lorette of Brightleigh was admitted by the serving man into her brother's chambers.

"Aldren," she nodded at him, sweeping off her travelling cloak and thrusting it at the nearest servant.

"Sister." Aldren rose from his chair to kiss her on the cheek. He led the way to the fireplace, where his wife was sat with sewing on her lap. As Evaline stood to receive her sister-in-law, Lorette noticed a new bruise spreading over the woman's cheekbone. Lorette's only response was a jerk of the eyebrow.

_Stupid woman must have done something to irritate him again. When will she learn?_

She did her duty, kissing Evaline politely on the other cheek. "Evaline. It is good to see you again. How have you been keeping?"

Lorette did not miss the furtive glance at Aldren. "Very well thank you, Lorette. Except…I have been my usual clumsy self again." Evaline reddened as her fingertips went to the bruise.

"Oh my. Those doorframes will keep jumping out of nowhere, won't they?" Lorette could keep the smirk from her face but not her voice.

"Evaline, go and get the girls. Their Aunt will be pleased to see them," said Aldren, sitting in his large wing-backed chair. He picked up his brandy tumbler and sipped, regarding his wife over the rim.

Dipping a curtsey, Evaline left the room, her eyes downcast. Lorette took her place by the fire, smoothing her skirts around her.

"So, dear Sister, how long have we the pleasure of your company this time?" enquired Aldren, turning his glass in his hands.

Sighing, Lorette signalled for the servant to pour her a brandy. "As long as it takes for my so-called husband to apologise to me. Or before it starts seeming indecent that I am away from him for too long. Whichever comes first."

Aldren nodded; both of them knew which would come first. "The main question is, Lorette, what are we going to do about that daughter of yours?"

"The gods only know what will become of that ungrateful child! Elbert thwarts me at every turn; she's never had the discipline yours have. I thought she would last only a few weeks with this ridiculous idea of knight training, once she realised that it was really a man's job, but she's as stubborn as her father. She's already nearly been killed, _twice_; only luck has seemed to prevent her from being terribly scarred for life. Elbert doesn't _think_ – it's not just his family's name that will suffer, not that he seems to care about that, everyone knows Ellabelle is also of Stone Mountain, neither of them seem to _care_…"

Her brother listened to the tirade in silence, sipping at his brandy occasionally. "It seems then, we must try again."

"I don't see _how_. That thrice-cursed Mindelan _woman_ constantly gets in the way. Not to mention my husband…"

They were interrupted by the door opening. Evaline entered the room again, her two young daughters trailing her.

"Ah, girls, come and greet your Aunt Lorette," said Aldren, waving a lazy hand, spilling some of his brandy onto the carpet.

They obliged, silently walking forward and curtseying to Lorette. She looked them over – the eldest, Derminia, was nine years old and had the willowy grace of the Stone Mountain line, complete with the blonde hair and blue eyes. Her six-year old sister, Theodora, took after Evaline – she was a plump little girl with brown ringlets and brown eyes.

_Poor child. She will forever be in the shadow of her sister. Hopefully Aldren will find her a relatively favourable match._

"And where is my nephew Burchard today?" asked Lorette.

"He is with his nurse, I am afraid Lorette. The poor little mite is running a bit of a fever…" Evaline bit her lip into silence at Aldren's glare.

"Mollycoddled as usual. He will never be a strong man if he constantly has women fussing over him! He is to be a knight of this house, once the Mindelan woman has been removed from the training post and order has returned to the world once more."

Even Lorette couldn't help raising an eyebrow at this. Little Burchard was only 18 months old.

_Still, I have to admit, Aldren knows how to raise his children. Look at these girls. They're feminine, demure and well-behaved. I would bet anything you would not see them racing all over the countryside on a pony, fighting with their cousins. If only I had sent Ellabelle to live here years ago._

_Well…there's still time._

"Your children do you credit, Aldren. All we need now is for you to instil in my daughter some of the discipline your own have."

"It will happen yet, Sister. Girls?" Aldren's daughters flinched at their father's voice as he addressed them.

"Yes Father?" It was said in unison, in soft voices, followed by another curtsey. Lorette was impressed.

"How would you like your cousin Ellabelle coming to live with us?"

The girls glanced at each other, before Derminia ventured a nod. "We would like it very much, if it pleased you, sir."

"Excellent!" Aldren slapped his hand on his leg. The girls flinched again. "Though it may be you have to wait a while for the privilege."

Lorette frowned at this. "How comes? Every moment we waste, she becomes more…"

"I know, Sister," said Aldren, cutting her off. "But there are ways of doing these things. We bide our time until the right moment."

"Which is when?" asked Lorette, crossing her arms.

Aldren downed the rest of his brandy. "The final exams."


	20. Big Exams

**I flipping love the Christmas holidays. Not only do I get time off work (get in!) but I get time to write! Two chapters in one day! The writer's block is officially over! For now. **

**I own nothing that belongs to Tamora Pierce. And I'm sorry if this has any glaring errors, but once more I am posting this late at night. It seems to be the time my creative brain works best. Who knows why...**

**Hope you had a lovely Christmas and that you are still enjoying the story :o) x**

_20_

_Summer. Two years later._

There was a sharp rap on the door. With a groan, she levered herself to her feet and went to open it.

Only to get a shock when she saw who was on the other side.

"Well, are you going to let me in or not?"

She moved aside and, finally remembering her manners, drew up a chair for the visitor.

"Forgive me, sir, but…what brings you here?"

Lord Wyldon leant back in the chair. "You've been training these youngsters for a long time now, Lady Knight, and I've yet to see them in action in the big exams."

Kel smiled, pouring him a cup of juice. As he reached out to take it from her, she studied her former Training Master. He had mellowed slightly in his old age, his steely brown eyes softer than they used to be and his wrinkled face more liable to break into a smile. Kel rather thought retirement and an ever growing family had done a lot to temper 'The Stump'.

He was studying her as closely as she was him. "Sounds like it's been rather a tough ride for you Mindelan." When she gave him an enquiring look, his mouth twitched in a smile. "Palace gossip. You should be used to that by now."

Shaking her head ruefully, Kel replied, "It's not been dull, My Lord. Thankfully the last two years have been a little more quiet."

"Indeed." Wyldon took a long sip of apple juice. "I hear Goldenlake is coming back today as well. Seems this year group is causing quite a stir."

"It's the last year group with any girls in it," said Kel quietly. "I think everyone is interested to see how they do."

If Wyldon heard the tone in her voice, he did not comment. Instead he ran a hand over his bald head, smoothing down the remaining few white hairs. "I believe that _who_ the girls are might also be something to do with it."

As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Guessing who it might be, Kel grinned at Lord Wyldon. "Well sir, here's your chance to say hello."

Her guess was right, in stepped Ro, shadowed as ever by Ella. In the last two years the pair had grown nearly inseparable.

"Hullo Auntie Kel. You said you had a message you wanted to send to Papa?" Technically today was a free day for the pages before their final exam tomorrow; it seemed Ro was taking advantage of that.

Movement in the room behind her drew the attention of the two teenagers. Wyldon had stood up and come to look the two pages over.

Kel looked at them, trying to see them as he would be. Ro had shot up in the last few years – she had definitely taken her height from Neal – but knight training had filled her out, taking away her previous lankiness and broadening her shoulders. Her features were Yamani; apart from her green eyes which sparkled with more mischief than any good Yamani would ever allow.

As for Ella…Kel suppressed a sigh as she caught Wyldon out the corner of her eye. His expression suggested disbelief.

The girl was still tiny, barely coming past her best friend's elbow. Her overall look suggested vulnerability, with rosy cheeks, shoulder length blonde hair and huge blue eyes. Knight training had made her wiry rather than muscular; she could now hold her own in hand-to-hand combat, but she still needed her weapons cut down for her to use them.

"Lord Wyldon, may I introduce Pages Queenscove and Brightleigh," said Kel.

"Well, Queenscove I have met before," commented Wyldon, as the two girls straightened from their bow. "In fact she has spent a few summers keeping my grandson out of trouble…most of the time."

Kel closed her eyes briefly, but not before she had caught Ro's grin.

"Brightleigh on the other hand…" Kel opened her eyes as she heard the hesitation in Wyldon's voice. She had never been sure whether his standing on girls becoming knights had changed that much. He had accepted her; that much was clear. But, a little like Alanna the Lioness, Kel was sometimes shown as the exception to the rule. She had always been extremely tall and broad for a girl – it was to be expected that not all the girls who went for their knighthood would be the same.

And here was pretty little Ella, the physical embodiment of all those girls the conservatives wanted to protect from the harsh world of warriors by sending them to the convert, standing in front of the very man who put the first known girl page in centuries on probation.

Wyldon smoothed all expression from his face, before nodding at Ella. "I wish you good luck with the big exams. Both of you."

A few minutes later, Kel had thrust a letter in Ro's hands and bundled them out of the room.

"Is that girl _really_ a fourth year page?"

Kel leant her head on the closed door for a second, before turning back to her old training master. She took a deep breath through her nose and put on her best Yamani face. "Yes, sir, she is. At least until tomorrow, when she will become a first year squire."

xxx

Ella awoke from a dream in which she had stepped before the judges' platform; to find the only person who sat there was the fusty old Lord Wyldon she had met just the day before. He had said nothing, simply looked down at her and laughed.

She tried to put it out of her mind. The last two years of her page training had been much smoother than the first two. She had progressed better than anyone had expected her to, including Ella herself.

Today was the proof that she really had kept up with the others. Today she showed the world that a girl from a conservative background could be a knight. Today she showed her mother that she was right all along.

Picking up the latest letters from home, Ella frowned. Her mother had written her own note to go along with her father's gossip of what was occurring at Brightleigh. That in itself was not unusual but lately, instead of her normal rants of how Ella was disgracing the family and should go to the convent while she still had a chance, Lorette's musings had changed. Now, they were more like the letters a mother would write to her child – containing words of encouragement and support.

The last time Ella was home, Lorette had been downright pleasant to her, enquiring after her health, speaking softly and almost with concern.

It really was very strange.

Still, her mother would be here today, along with her father and many others. They were here for one reason only…to watch her become a squire. She would not disappoint.

Ella was just pulling on her best tunic when there was a knock at the door. She opened it, fully expecting to see Ro.

"Gerry!"

He grinned at her. "You didn't think I'd miss your big day, did you?"

Unable to contain her joy at seeing him again, Ella flung her arms around him. "We haven't seen you at the Palace for nearly a year! We thought you'd forgotten us altogether!"

"We?" he asked, smiling down at her teasingly.

Ella looked back at him, her eyes meeting his equally blue ones. "Me," she whispered. "I thought you'd forgotten _me_."

His gaze made everything else fade into insignificance. Her fourteen-year-old heart beat only for the beautiful boy who stood here in her arms.

Gerry bent his head down towards hers.

"Oh for the love of the Goddess, you're back for _five minutes_ Gerard and already you're a distraction! Auntie Kel should never have let you back in the pages' wing."

A sheepish smile on his face, Gerry turned away from Ella, who had to take a moment to recompose herself. "Well met, as ever cousin. Feeling ready for the big exams?"

Ro pointedly leant herself up against the wall next to Ella. "_I'm _ready. And this one here will be too, if you get lost until after the exams are over." She considered her cousin. "Papa didn't say that you and Sir Merric were coming back today."

Gerry had seemed to add another few inches in the time he had been away. Ella, looking at him properly for the first time, noticed he was tanned from being out in the field with his knight master, and there was a new look in his eyes that hadn't been there before. He was sixteen, she remembered. He'd been a squire for two years now. He'd grown up a lot.

Had he grown up too much? Their relationship – if it could even be called that – had always been rocky at best. They were at each other's' throats one moment; all puppy-dog eyes and hand holding the next.

Of course, relationships between the pages were strictly forbidden.

And then he had gone off with Sir Merric of Hollyrose and New Hope. A dashing squire in his new tunic, riding off to help protect his knight master's fiefs from bandits. He had popped back to the Palace a few times, but the last absence had been his longest yet. With each passing month, Ella was convinced that he had completely forgotten her.

Today, it seemed her fears were unfounded. Or were they? Had he simply been away from the Palace, and from her, for too long?

"Ella? _Ella!_"

She realised she had been stood there, simply staring at Gerry. Now, Ro was shaking her head at her with dismay.

"I told you you're a distraction, Gerry. Now clear off. We'll see you after the big event."

With a grin and a wink, Gerry wished them both, "Good luck!" and disappeared off round the corner of the corridor.

The bell for breakfast was ringing and doors in the pages' wing were starting to open. "Come on, Dolly Daydream. You can make gooey-eyes over my long lost cousin after we've impressed some judges and ended these four years of torment."

Renewed worry sparked in Ella's stomach. "I don't know if I can eat anything."

"Yes you can. You don't want to faint up there do you? That would just be hideously embarrassing!"

"It would be. But not as embarrassing as when I fail miserably."

Ro snorted. "I keep telling you Ella. You won't fail. These exams have to be so easy a noble with ogre blood could pass them."

"Maybe I have more ogre blood than most, you don't know that."

Laughing, the girls elbowed their way to the front of the food queue.

xxx

The hall was packed and incredibly stuffy. The physical tests were over, now the pages had to prove their mental abilities in front of the judges.

"I'm very impressed Mindelan. You've done a good job."

Though she had her Yamani mask on, inside Kel was bursting with pride. Lord Wyldon, one of the men she had the most respect for, thought she had done a good job. At his old job nonetheless.

"I couldn't agree more with Cavall." The hulking mass of Raoul of Goldenlake stirred on the other side of her. Although he had retired as an active member of the King's Own – handing the captaincy of Third Company over to Dom – he was still Knight Commander in name and oversaw the whole organisation. He always took an interest in the new warriors of the realm; searching for any possible future commanders.

"If you ever get tired of training these youngsters," Raoul had said to Kel fairly recently. "I'm still trying to find a suitable replacement for me as Knight Commander." She had laughed at him and shaken her head.

Now he sat next to her in the stands, watching the first of the fourth year pages step up to the judges' platform. "You really have done wonders Kel. When that tiny little girl picked up that long bow, I thought she was going to shoot herself at the target, let alone the arrow. But she really proved me wrong. Even in my old age, I can still be taught some important lessons by these younglings."

Kel smiled. "You're hardly in your dotage yet, Lord Raoul. And yes, Ellabelle is full of surprises."

_So is her family_, added Kel to herself, glancing across the hall at Elbert of Brightleigh, sitting next to his wife. Lorette had shown no emotion other than polite interest at the goings on. She had even applauded her daughter after the physical tests were over. It was confounding.

Ro had stepped up before the judges. Kel refocused her attention on her gods-daughter as she proceeded to answer the questions fired at her.

"That girl is Queenscove reborn," muttered Wyldon, as Ro gave one of the judges her cheeky grin.

"And that is why she is destined for greatness, My Lord." Neal's head poked between Wyldon and Kel.

Kel covered a snigger with her hand as Wyldon leant away from his former pupil, an extremely disgruntled expression on his leathery face. Still, he applauded with the rest when Ro had finished her answers and walked off to the waiting area, a relieved look on her face.

Next was Ella's turn. Kel sat up straighter in her chair and listened closely to the little page's answers.

xxx

It was over.

Ella could feel the beat of her heart slowing to some semblance of normality. Right until the judges called all the pages back into the hall to give their results.

"Here we go," whispered Ro.

As they walked back into the hall, Ella's eyes roved the audience for familiar faces. She caught her father's eye almost straight away. He waved at her and she gave him a tiny smile in return. Next to him, her mother also waved; a smile on her beautiful features. Her eyes seemed to flick somewhere on the other side of the hall, at someone Ella could not quite see, before returning to rest on her daughter. Ella's smile faltered, but came back stronger.

_Maybe this is it. Maybe this is the day she's finally proud of me._

Searching once more, Ella saw Gerry, beaming at her. Sitting to his left was his knight master, Sir Merric and Ro's father. In the row in front was Lady Keladry with that old man, Lord Wyldon, and the huge bear-like figure of Raoul of Goldenlake. All their eyes were on the pages.

Ella swallowed a new rush of butterflies and turned her attention back to the judges.

_The tests have to be so simple a noble with ogre blood could pass. Nobody fails the exams, unless they don't turn up at all. Lerrage of Theaham knocked himself out halfway through his last year and he _still_ passed. _

"Yorolt of Rich Caffrey, congratulations on your new squire status."

Ro grabbed Ella's hand and held it tightly.

"Ryoku of Queenscove, congratulations on your new squire status."

Ella felt Ro sag with relief.

"Harman of Bay's Cove, congratulations on your new squire status."

Ella's fingers tightened around Ro's. Her name should have come next, if the judges were going in the order in which the pages had taken the tests.

"Don't worry. They're probably just mixing things up a little bit," whispered Ro, almost inaudibly.

"Paol of Marmist, congratulations on your new squire status."

"Wirrel of Linshart, congratulations on your new squire status."

And there was a pause.

Ella's heart was beating so loudly in her chest, she half thought it might fall out.

The head judge, a terribly crusty old man who was wearing a fur collar on his cloak, even in the middle of summer, leant forward.

"Ellabelle of Brightleigh."

_Say it, come on, say it, I'm a squire, I've _got _to be a squire, I did everything right, I didn't mess it up, I _have_ to be a squire!_

"It is…with regret…that I have to say you have failed the final exams. You may not become a squire."


	21. Fallout

**That was such a great response for the last chapter - thanks to my lovely reviewers!**

_21_

"What?" Kel shouted, springing up from her seat.

"_What_?" she heard Neal and Gerard also yell behind her.

"That's ridiculous, how…I mean…she _can't_ have…"

Raoul grabbed her by the arm, pulling her back into her seat. "It's got to be a mistake Kel. That's all. Calm down."

Pleading for some sanity in the situation, Kel looked at Wyldon. He hadn't moved; he was watching the scene in front of him with a frown.

"Sir…you were Training Master once. How could she have failed?"

"I don't know Mindelan," he replied, rubbing the scar on his temple. "I'm as baffled as you. Nothing she did was…she _shouldn't_ have failed. Something's gone wrong somewhere."

Kel looked across the hall at the audience on the other side. Elbert of Brightleigh was making his way down to the judges. His wife was following him.

"Something's gone very wrong," muttered Kel, eyes narrowed. "And I intend to find out exactly what."

xxx

It seemed as though everything had gone into slow motion.

As soon as the judge had spoken those words, Ella's mind had shut down, leaving her standing there in the middle of the hall. Through a muffled wall of sound, she thought she heard the judges' dismissal.

A hand was tugging her arm. She allowed herself to be pulled out of the hall, back into the waiting area – neither properly seeing nor hearing anything.

"I can't _believe_ it! Of all the gods-cursed, stinking, rotten…" Ro's swearing blended into simply noise.

She had failed. She hadn't expected to fail. Of course, every page worried about failing, there was always that tiny chance, but no one _actually failed_ the exams.

Until now.

"Is she alright?" Ella heard one of the boys ask.

_What sort of stupid question is that?_ the small part of Ella's brain that was still functioning asked.

"I…I'm going back to my room." Her voice sounded distant and tinny to her own ears.

Ro took a breath from her generic cursing long enough to look concerned. "I'll come with you."

"No…no, I want to be on my own for a bit."

"Okay." Ro frowned. "It will be alright Ella. It's a mistake, that's all. Auntie Kel will sort it out, you'll see. You'll be a squire. It's all a mistake."

_How can it be a mistake? How could the judges make a mistake like that?_ Ella forced a semblance of a smile. "I'm…I'm sure you're right. I'll see you in a bit."

She didn't want to speak to anyone. She didn't want to see anyone. Ella put her head down and made her way back to her room at a trot, using lesser known corridors.

Somehow she arrived at her door. Fumbling with her key, Ella let herself into her room and slammed the door behind her. She walked over to the bed and flung herself on it, burying her face in her pillow.

She had failed.

xxx

A few hours later saw Gerry pacing up and down at the door of Sir Nealan's study.

"You're going to wear the floor out if you keep on with that," commented Neal, pouring tea into four cups.

He glanced over at where his daughter was sat, elbows on the desk in front of her, staring glumly into space. It should have been a happy day for her, but worry for her friend was eclipsing everything else.

Merric took his tea and blew on it. "Kel will sort something out, don't worry."

"Everyone keeps saying that, but she's been gone for _ages_!" exclaimed Gerry, finally stopping his pacing and throwing his arms up in the air.

"Gerard, sit down and drink some tea, for Mithros' sake. You panicking is not going to make things any better."

Gerry threw himself down into the spare chair next to his knight master and took his cup grumpily.

"She won't answer the door to me," piped up Ro, miserably. "I knocked and knocked, but she eventually told me to go away. I'm really worried."

Neal patted his daughter on the shoulder. "She's upset, poppet. She's bound to be. Give her a bit of time."

The sound of thudding footsteps outside made them all glance up.

"I know the sound of that walk anywhere," said Neal, leaping from his chair. As everyone made to follow suit, he signalled them all to stay where they were.

Emerging into the corridor, he caught sight of the broad back of the Lady Knight. "Kel!"

She stopped and spun to look at him. "Neal! There you are."

He scrutinised her face. The Yamani mask had slipped, to be replaced with mixed emotions of anger and worry. "What's going on? Did you meet with the King in the end?"

"I did." Her voice was tight. "Raoul managed to get hold of him; the servants kept trying to fob me off with him being 'too busy'. Still, he heard us out in the end…"

"Us?"

"Myself, Raoul, Lord Wyldon and Elbert. We put the case to him and the king ordered the judges to his office to explain themselves. It took a lot of harassing but in the end the truth came out…" she looked at Neal with fury sparking behind her normally placid hazel eyes. "Someone paid them off, Neal. Someone paid them to make sure Ella failed."

Neal's jaw dropped. "But…who would do such a thing?"

Her expression darkened further. "I didn't stay to hear the outcome of that part of the conversation. But I have a bloody good idea who."

"You don't think…not the Stone Mountain lot again?"

"Who else?"

Neal rubbed the back of his neck with a sigh. "So what happens now? For Ella?"

To his surprise, Kel's cheeks started to turn red. "I'm…I'm not sure…I didn't stay for that part either."

Neal raised his eyebrows.

She sighed. "I may…I may have lost my temper a little bit." Her blush deepened. "When…when we finally got to the truth of the matter, I may have shouted something about…I can't quite remember the exact words…conservatives always trying to ruin lives of honest people…and then when King Jonathon told me to calm down, I may have thrown this job back in his face and told him to…to stuff it."

There were words somewhere to answer this. Neal was sure of it. He needed to say something to his rather sheepish looking best friend, who _never_ lost her temper and who would surely _never_ really shout at her monarch. "Tell me you're joking, Kel."

She covered her face with her hands. "I wish I was."

"You quit? As Training Mistress?"

"Yes," came the muffled response.

"_What?_"

They both looked round at the surprised shout from Neal's study. The door creaked open to show three shocked faces.

"Sir Merric!" said Ro, hands on her hips, looking disgruntled at having her eavesdropping discovered.

The knight flushed a colour to match his still flame-red hair. "Sorry, but…Kel, you never quit! At anything!"

Neal glanced back at the Lady Knight, who seemed to be attempting to pull herself together. "Well, there's a first time for everything. I can't take part in a system like this anymore that is so…so corrupted. It's time for me to go and fight some proper battles, not these political ones."

"Wait," said Ro, looking eager. "So, Ella didn't actually fail her exam?"

Kel managed to crack a smile. "No, she didn't."

"So she can become a squire after all?"

Kel shared a look with Neal, which meant she wasn't sure of the answer. "I don't know, Ro. I do know that Raoul and Wyldon were still fighting her corner with the king when I…left. I made my own feelings clear on the matter. It looks more hopeful than before, let's leave it at that."

The beam that broke out on Ro's face could have lit up a room. "But that's great! Come on, Gerry!" She grabbed her stunned cousin by the arm. "We're going to go and tell her the news!"

The two of them raced off to the pages' wing.

Neal watched them go and shook his head. "I still can't believe you quit over this." He paused, before adding, "Do you think it _will_ be alright? That Ella will be declared a squire?"

Kel's face did not reassure him. "I don't know."

"What's wrong?" asked Merric. When Neal glared at him, he rolled his eyes. "I mean beyond the obvious. There's something you're not telling us."

"I don't know," Kel shrugged. "There's something else not quite right about all this. I have a bad feeling this is not the end of it after all."

xxx

The door opened at her push. That was the first thing that alerted Ro to the fact not all was right.

"What is it?" asked Gerry, frowning.

"I'm not sure," whispered Ro back. She entered Ella's room. It was deathly quiet. "Ella? It's only us! We've got good news. Sort of."

"Sort of?" muttered Gerry.

"Well how would you feel if your family potentially sabotaged your dream of becoming a knight?" hissed Ro back. She paused to listen. Nothing. "Ella?" She walked over and stuck her head in the dressing room. It too was empty.

"Ro."

The tone in Gerry's voice made her run back into the main room. "What? What is it?"

Mutely, he held a piece of paper out to her. Ro took it, her hand already starting to tremble. She read the letter, her eyes going wide.

"I didn't think she would do something like that," murmured Gerry, his face white.

Ro didn't answer. She read again and then a third time, her eyes narrowing suspiciously.

The sounds of people approaching made them both start. It was the grownups, who had obviously followed them down to Ella's room.

"Ro, Gerry…what's going on? Where's Ella?" Ro's father said, looking concerned.

In answer, Ro held the paper out to Auntie Kel. She took it and read; by now, Ro knew what it said.

_Dear everyone. I'm sorry. I failed you all. I tried my best, but it wasn't enough. I'm leaving now. I hope you understand. You will hear from me soon, when I have sorted out what I'm going to do next. Please do not worry about me. I will be fine. Yours, Ellabelle x_

"She's run off!" exclaimed Sir Merric, reading over Kel's shoulder. Kel did not reply, she looked at Ro, questioning.

"We should be searching, she can't have been gone for too long, surely!" added Neal.

"I don't think she has, but there's something else," said Ro. Her gods-mother was staring at her, almost willing her not to say what she had also worked out.

"What do you mean?" asked Gerry, finally finding his voice.

"I don't think Ella _has_ run off…because that letter was not written by her."

Kel's face was like thunder, but she said nothing. She simply crumpled the letter in her fist.


	22. Taken

_22_

Something wasn't right.

Nausea churned in Ella's stomach. She groaned.

Whatever she was lying on gave a jolt. Ella opened her eyes to darkness.

That wasn't right.

She rolled onto her back and a tiny pinprick of light hit her right in the face. Ella groaned again and raised her hand to shield her face. Her fingers brushed against something rough. Her knees hit something overhead.

Stretching out her arms, her fingers hit solid sides to whatever she was lying on. She reached overhead and found the same thing.

Straightening her legs, Ella's feet hit something too.

Wood.

There were other pinpricks of light. Ella blinked, her eyes adjusting.

Not right. Not right at all.

"No, no, no, no," she found herself whispering over and over again, as she tried once more to explore her surroundings. Her movements became more frantic; her hands became fists as realisation washed over her.

She was in a box.

xxx

_A few hours earlier._

There was a knock on the door.

"Ro, please go away!"

"It's me."

Ella lifted her head from her pillow and stared blearily at the door. She recognised that voice. She did.

Hoisting herself off the bed, she walked over and opened the door a crack. Peering out affirmed it.

"Mother?"

Lorette smiled at her daughter. "May I come in?"

Ella's mouth opened, closed again without sound. Finally she nodded and stepped aside to let Lorette in.

Instead of claiming the only chair, Lorette perched herself on the edge of the bed. She patted the cover next to her. "Come sit with me, darling."

A year ago, Ella would have thought she was imagining this scene. But her mother had been so different lately…she walked over, a little wary, and sat down next to Lorette.

As Ella stared at her hands, clasped on her lap, she could feel her mother staring at her. "Go on then. Say it. You were right. You were right all along."

"Oh, Ellabelle, my sweet. Of course I'm not going to say it. I…" There was hesitation there. She sounded so genuine. "I know what I've been like. It's only because I wanted the best for you. When I saw how determined you were to become a knight well…"

Ella raised her eyes and met the identical blue ones of her mother. Lorette gave a sad smile and smoothed the hair away from her daughter's face. "I'm sorry it had to end like this. I'm sorry all your hard work was for nothing."

It was the gentle touch, something Ella could never remember Lorette ever having done, which finally broke the floodgates. Tears finally forced their way out and trickled down her cheeks. Her chin trembled. "Oh Mama, I don't know what h-happened. I d-don't know wh-what I d-did wrong, I…I…" The rest of the words were lost among the sobs.

"Darling, it's ok." And Lorette folded Ella into her arms, rocking her back and forth like she had never done when Ella was small.

It was a bittersweet moment. Through all the grief that her dream was as good as dead, Ella finally felt like her mother was acting in the way a mother was supposed to – not passing her off on servants, ignoring her tears, berating her for not being a _proper_ lady.

Finally the tears slowed enough for Ella to sit up. Her mother kept her hand on her shoulder.

"Ro said…" Ella sniffed and wiped her eyes on the back of her hand. Lorette passed her a handkerchief with an encouraging smile. "Ro said that Lady Keladry was going to speak to the King. She said there might have been a mistake. Maybe there was." She looked at her mother with a small amount of hope.

Lorette's smile faded. She squeezed Ella's shoulder. "I'm sorry my dear. Your father just came out of the same talk with the King. There was no mistake. You failed the exam."

"Oh…" And that tiny flame of hope sputtered and died. "Where…where is Papa? And Lady Keladry?" Ella asked in a small voice.

"They're still sorting some things out. They'll be along soon. I wanted to come and check you were alright. I've brought you something that might cheer you up."

Ella didn't think anything was going to cheer her up ever again. "Thanks," she whispered, looking down at the ground.

Lorette gave another smile and went to the door. "You can bring it in now," she said to someone outside. Turning back into the room, she gave her daughter a searching look. "Have you given any thought about what you will do now?"

Ella had been thinking about nothing else, but had arrived at no definite answers. "I'm not sure…I suppose I could try for the Queen's Riders soon, I'll be fifteen in a few months. Or I hear Lord Raoul was thinking about letting girls try for the King's Own. Lady Keladry used to be his squire, maybe she can put in a good word for me."

The smile on Lorette's face froze slightly. "I see. You have been thinking of your options." She moved to one side as a couple of serving men brought in a sizeable trunk. They placed it on the floor and stood to one side. "Have…and I know what you felt about it before, but I just thought I'd make sure…have you thought about the convent at all? They'd still accept you."

Ella looked sharply at her mother, but could still detect nothing but concern on the woman's face. "No…" she said slowly. "No. I still don't want to go there. I want to be a warrior. I guess I'll just have to do it another way now."

"I see," Lorette folded her hands in front of her. She cocked her head at her daughter. "Well, no matter. We can talk about it later perhaps. You've had a shock today. Do you want to see what I've brought you?"

Standing up, Ella walked over to the trunk and ran her fingertips over it. "What is it?"

"It's a surprise. It was going to be a present for when you had…well, never mind. Maybe it will cheer you up still. Go on. Open it."

Mystified, Ella fumbled a little with the clasps that held the lid closed. Once they were open, she hefted the lid open.

The trunk was empty.

"Erm…Mother, there's nothing in here."

Lorette came up to stand behind her, putting her hand on Ella's shoulder again. "Are you sure? Look a little closer."

Frowning, Ella leant closer. It made no difference, the trunk was still empty.

"Mother, wha-"

Her sentence was cut off as some sort of cloth was clamped over her nose and mouth. A sharp smell pervaded Ella's nostrils. Her shocked cry was muffled, but her reflexes didn't let her down; her elbow connected with something soft.

Ella heard a whoosh of breath escape her mother, as the cloth fell away from her face. She made to run around the trunk and towards the door, but her legs felt odd – like they weren't quite connected with the rest of her body. Stumbling, Ella found herself caught and held by a strong pair of arms.

Looking up, confused, Ella stared straight into the eyes of one of the serving men.

They were the same blue as her mother's.

"No!" cried Ella, as realisation washed over her. Her voice sounded strangely weak.

"Lorette! Pull yourself together!"

Ella tried to struggle, but whatever had been on that cloth was fuddling the signals from her brain to her limbs. She found herself spun round to face the room, held firmly from behind.

Gone was Lorette's genial demeanour of before. Bent double, face creased with pain, she poured liquid from a tiny clear bottle onto the cloth she was holding and advanced on Ella.

"Mother, no, please!" Ella pleaded, wriggling ineffectively.

"Quiet! Did you really _think_ I'd let any daughter of mine disgrace herself in such a matter? I refuse to be ashamed of you any more than I am now."

"No! Please, someone hel-" Once more Ella was cut off mid-sentence. She tried to hold her breath, but had already gotten too much of the substance on the cloth.

As the darkness started to close in at the edges of her vision, Ella thought she saw her mother look at her with something like regret.

"I am sorry to be doing this Ellabelle. One day you'll see it is for your own good. One day I hope you'll see."

xxx

And now this.

"Help! Someone help me! Please, help!" Ella screamed, pounding with all her might at the lid of the trunk. She tried kicking out with her feet, but that proved as unsuccessful.

"Oh Mithros, Goddess, anyone! Please get me out of here!" She whispered, panic making the nausea worse. The trunk seemed to be shrinking around her. That couldn't be possible, could it?

Suddenly she was back in the spidren's web again; constricted, trapped. She couldn't breathe. She couldn't move!

The trunk gave another jolt. Ella's head smacked against the lid, the pain of it clearing away the last few remnants of the drug. She had to stay calm. She escaped the spidren, she would escape here.

Yelling hadn't been very constructive. Ella braced herself against the sides of the trunk as it gave another jolt. There was another tiny hole near her face – breathing holes, she assumed. Pressing her eye up against it, Ella tried to make out what was outside.

It took a while for her eye to adjust to the light, but once it did, she saw a bumpy dirt road lined with trees. They seemed to be moving at some speed, which suggested that the trunk was on the back of a cart of some sort.

How long had she been out for? Where were they taking her?

Ella pulled her face away from the hole and lay back once more as the cart jolted again. She bit her lip, beating back tears of frustration and fear.

She knew where they were taking her. She had known it as soon as she had worked out that the serving man in her room had been her uncle, in disguise. She knew it as soon as she had seen the expression on her mother's face change.

They were taking her to Stone Mountain.


	23. Taking Action

_23_

"Lady Keladry, I thought I might find you here as well, I've just come out of the talks with the King. He said that…" Elbert of Brightleigh paused and looked at the crowd in his daughter's room. "What's wrong? Where's Ella?"

Kel shot a look at Neal, before turning back to the man. "I'm sorry Lord Brightleigh but…I'm afraid Ella's missing."

"Missing?" The man blinked. "What do you…where could she have gone?"

"Am I to understand…" That new voice was Lorette of Brightleigh, who had just entered the room. "That you have lost my daughter, Lady Keladry?"

"Lorette, please!" Elbert held a hand up to his wife. "I'm sure…what…what exactly has happened?"

Kel passed him the note and watched his face carefully. Elbert paled as he read. "Ella's run away! But…I know she must have been upset, but what did she think to gain by…?"

"That's the very question we've just been asking ourselves, My Lord. I was thinking perhaps your Lady wife might be able to shed some light on the subject."

Lorette had just taken the letter from Elbert. She looked up from her reading at Kel, a shocked look on her face. "I don't know what you mean, Lady Knight. I have not spoken to Ellabelle since before her exam. It's clear she's run off somewhere, but how would you expect me to – "

She was cut off, by a very angry Ro. "Stop lying! We all know you're behind it somehow!"

"Ro!" hissed Kel.

"I never…" Lorette looked aggrieved, putting a hand to her chest. "I am shocked to think I could be accused of such a thing!"

Before Kel could stop her, Ro had stepped forward, until she was standing right in front of Lorette. "That letter was not written by Ella. I know, I see her handwriting every day, we pass notes to each other in class…I know how she writes and she did not write that, so _what have you done with her you old witch?_"

There was a resounding crack as Lorette's palm connected with Ro's cheek – she was just about tall enough to reach the face of the young squire. "_Never _presume to speak to me like that!"

"I say, leave my daughter – "

"Lady Brightleigh, that's – "

Both Kel and Neal's furious exclamations were interrupted by the sight of Lorette flying backwards to land in a crumpled head on the floor.

Kel was momentarily stuck speechless, as was everyone else in the room. She stared at her gods-daughter who looked as shocked as Kel felt, her hand still balled into a fist.

"Sir Nealan," croaked Kel, finally finding her voice. She cleared her throat. "Sir Nealan, please take your daughter out of the room. In fact," Kel looked at Merric and Gerry, both of whom seemed dumbstruck. "If you could all leave, I'd like a word with Lord and Lady Brightleigh in private please."

As Neal dragged Ro from the room, followed by the others, Kel turned to watch as Elbert helped his wife off the floor and into a chair.

Lorette blinked and raised her fingers to what promised to be a livid black eye. "She…she _struck_ me! That insolent, half-breed girl _struck_ me!"

Kel didn't think she could dislike the woman any more than she already did, but her distaste was elevated to whole new levels with that remark. "I think you'll find you struck her first, Lady Brightleigh," she replied coolly. "I believe Ryoku was merely acting in self-defence."

"Self-defence!" spluttered Lorette. Her usually cool façade had disappeared. "A war-trained barbarian hitting a delicate noble woman? Elbert…" Lorette squinted up at her husband. "I hope you are not going to let that brat get away with this!"

Elbert's face was unreadable. _He'd be good in the Yamani court,_ Kel thought wryly. "As far as I saw, _my dear_, you did in fact hit that girl first. Stop your fussing."

"Dear Goddess, what is this world coming to?" muttered Lorette, wincing as her fingertips probed her swelling eye. "I demand that healer man, that Queenscove, comes back to fix this! Actually, no, I will just take some ice, I wish to be able to show this to the King, as proof that – "

"For Mithros' sake woman, will you _hold your tongue_!"

If Kel was surprised at the roar that came out of the small, mild Lord Brightleigh, it was nothing to the effect it had on Lorette. She closed her mouth abruptly, staring at her husband in disbelief.

"For too long now I've let you…" he took a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes for a second, composing himself. He had picked up the note from the floor and now thrust it in Lorette's face. "Ella, remember? Our _daughter_. Where is she? Tell me the truth."

"I do not know. It is clear to me, she has run away." Lorette raised her chin defiantly.

"Well, it is not clear to us, Lady Brightleigh," put in Kel. She folded her arms. "Where have you been these past few hours? You were not in the meeting with the King. You said you have not seen Ella since before the exam. So where were you?"

Lorette's nostrils flared as she regarded Kel through her good eye. "I came to check that Ellabelle was all right. The door was locked and there was no answer. I assumed she was elsewhere, or she did not want to speak to me. It wouldn't be the first time she has ignored her own mother. In fact, it wouldn't be the first time she's run off, would it? After, I returned to my own chambers and I have been there since." A cruel smile came over the woman's face. "I'm not surprised she's run away to be honest. Quite an uproar isn't it? To have the first page in _years_ fail the exams? And under your watch again, Lady Keladry, dear me."

"Actually," Kel returned the smile with one of her own. "Ella didn't fail the exam. We got the truth out of the judges. Someone paid them to say Ella had failed. Who would do such a thing, I wonder?"

Gratification washed through Kel as the smile was wiped clean off Lorette's face. It was almost as satisfying as seeing Ro punch the woman.

"I wouldn't leave the Palace any time soon, if I were you Lady Brightleigh. I think the King _will_ be wanting to speak to you shortly. You'll have plenty of time for him to see your black eye then."

xxx

"Neal," Kel poked her head into Ro's room, which was as far as everyone had gotten. "I need to borrow you for a moment. Merric too."

Ro jumped off the bed where she had been sat. "What's going on? Can we come?"

"No, you and Gerry stay here, I don't want you getting in any more trouble." Kel ruined the lecture by giving her gods-daughter a grin. "That was a nice punch by the way. You listened to my advice about pulling your shoulder all the way back."

"Kel," Neal said warningly. "Back to the point."

"Sorry. I think we're finally getting to the bottom of all this, but I'm going to need an escort for Lady Brightleigh. She's a little…hysterical shall we say? We can catch the King in his office still, if we're quick."

As Merric and Neal moved to leave the room, Ro frowned. "Wait! What about Ella? Shouldn't we be getting after her?"

Ro didn't miss the look her father and gods-mother gave each other. "It's a little more complicated than that, Ro," said Kel. "We'll find her, don't you worry. Just keep out the way for a little bit."

With that the adults left, closing the door behind them.

"Gods…" muttered Gerry. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "This is crazy!"

Ro didn't answer. She rubbed her knuckles; they still stung after connecting with _that woman's_ face. It was difficult to sit here while her emotions boiled – the sheer disbelief that any mother could treat her own daughter like that did not sit well with her. Ro still remembered her own mother, a little distantly now, but all the memories were warm and loving. She saw Gerry's ma regularly, at Midwinter and other holidays, and knew the woman doted on her sons. Auntie Kel was like a second mother to her and Ro knew that if she ever had any problems, Kel would do her utmost to make sure Ro did not get hurt.

But Ella's mother…

A new worry washed over her. It wasn't just Ella's mother. The memory of that Midwinter, in second year, when Ella _had_ run off to Balor's Needle. Her uncle, that horrid man from Stone Mountain, he was involved as well.

Suddenly sitting there didn't seem like an option any more.

"What are you doing?" frowned Gerry, as his cousin leapt to her feet and pulled her saddle bags from under her bed.

"I can't just sit here. Ella's been gone for hours now! I'm going to find her." Ro buckled her sword around her waist.

She stifled a sigh as Gerry stared at her disbelievingly and carried on packing things she might need.

"You're not being serious?"

Ro shifted a pile of clothes off her desk chair, looking for her dagger. She found it rolled up in a pair of stockings. "I'm completely serious Gerry. I mean, think about it. Ella's mother is still here. But where's Ella? The longer we sit around, the further away she gets."

"But you don't even know where she's gone!" Gerry stood up and grabbed Ro by the elbow. "You can't go haring off on your own, searching the whole realm. It's madness!"

"You're quite welcome to come with me," snapped Ro, snatching her arm out of his grasp. "And I don't have to search the whole realm. I know where he's taking her."

"Who? And where?"

"Ella's uncle. He's taking her back to Stone Mountain. And once he gets there…"

Gerry's eyes widened in sudden understanding. Nobles had some protection from the King's law on their own land. It was a dodgy part of feudal tradition that King Jonathon and Queen Thayet had been trying to wheedle the conservatives to change for ages. If Aldren got Ella to Stone Mountain, there might not be anything anyone could do without declaring war on the fief. Ro doubted that the King would want to do that over one small girl.

"We're going to get in _such_ trouble…" groaned Gerry.

Ro grinned at him. "Not if we're careful. The two of us are less likely to be spotted on the road than a big group. We can work out how to rescue Ella once we've seen the situation."

"I didn't mean that. I meant that your father and Sir Merric are going to go _ballistic._ Not to mention Lady Keladry." Gerry shuddered.

"Well…we'll worry about that later as well. Now go and get some stuff together and meet me at the stables. There'll be no problem us sneaking out now, while everyone's busy."

"Fine," Gerry sighed in defeat. He went to the door, but stopped and turned back. "Ro?"

"What?" She was hunting under her desk for her boot-knife.

"Where exactly _is_ Stone Mountain?"

xxx

It would take about two days to get to Stone Mountain from the Palace by horse. Ella could work that out from the few times she had visited from Brightleigh, which was a smaller fief much closer to Corus.

She didn't know how long she had been unconscious for. She had no way of telling how long they had been travelling except a raging thirst and, ironically, an increasing need to empty her bladder. They would have to stop for the night soon – she could see it was getting dark outside, through the holes in the trunk. They would have to let her out.

Wouldn't they?

The cart gave another jerk, which was doing nothing to help her bladder control or the sick feeling that had plagued her since coming round from whatever drug her mother had ministered her. The memory of that moment made her eyes burn. How could she have been so stupid? For one, fleeting, moment she had thought Lorette had finally become the mother she had always longed for.

But no, she was still more concerned about Ella's reputation. About the family's reputation.

This was taking it all a little too far.

The motion of the cart changed; the trunk started to shudder, as if they had left the dirt path and were travelling over cobbles. Then, they jerked to a stop.

Ella held her breath, listening. In the distance she could hear muffled voices. She wondered if she should try shouting again.

Suddenly the voices moved closer and a light shone once more through the holes. It looked like lamp light. Ella strained her ears to make out what was being said.

"…see why we should 'ave to stay here while his Lordship settles himself in a nice cosy inn."

"Well, we couldn't very well bring her into an inn could we, like this? Be sensible, what would people think?"

"I dunno what to think meself. Don't seem right to me, chucking that little girl into a box like that."

"Do you want to get paid, or not?"

"Yeah, 'course I do…"

"Then stop your whinging and give me a hand."

Without warning the trunk was swung into the air. Ella clutched at the sides to stop herself being thrown about, as it was set none too gently onto the ground.

Her mind was racing. There were at least two men; that was clear. They were probably much bigger than her, so a fair fight was out of the question. She had no weapons on her at all and she was cramped from spending so long cooped up. She had to play it smart.

There was the sound of fumbling with the clasps on the trunk and _finally_ the lid was lifted, showering Ella with light. She threw up a hand to shield her eyes.

"What…what's going on…" she asked weakly. "Where…where am I?"

"Never you mind that," said the sharper sounding of the two. Ella squinted at him, her eyes adjusting to the light. He was tall and dark haired, with intelligent eyes. His companion was short and stocky; balding with a thick nose and a dim-witted expression. Both men wore plain leather tunics and dark breeches – no distinguishing marks on them at all. "Come on, out you get."

Ella gripped the sides of the trunk and attempted to pull herself out. She faltered and fell back again. "I can't," she whispered. "My legs feel all funny and my head hurts."

The shorter one gave a frown. "Here lass." He gripped her under the arms and swung her easily out of the trunk, depositing her on the ground.

Her knees _did_ feel a bit odd. Ella wobbled a bit, as she took a good look at her surroundings. They appeared to be in some sort of barn, from the smell – it was fairly small, a bit ramshackle looking, with only a few partitions for stables and one door.

Which was firmly padlocked. One of the men must have the key.

Ella wrapped her arms around herself as she looked back at the men. They were unloading some things off the cart, keeping one eye on her. It was a small wooden affair, pulled by a chunky brown pony.

"Why am I here? Where's my mother? She…" Ella swallowed. "And my Papa, I want my Papa."

The men stopped their activity to look at each other.

"No more questions from you, lass," said the taller one, scowling. "The less you ask, the better it will go for you. Understand?"

Ella nodded mutely, looking at her boots. She glanced up again. "Please…I'm sorry, but…I really…really need to go…to the p-privy."

The short man blushed a little, but the tall one jerked his head impatiently. "Go in one of the stalls. The straw's good enough for the horse, it's good enough for you."

Eyes widening, Ella looked pleadingly at the shorter man. He rubbed his nose, "Aw, c'm on Warren, surely we can come up wi' summat better than –"

"Shut up Marn, what did I tell you before?" Tall Warren glared at Ella. "I told you, girl, go in the stall. Or you can go in your breeches, if you'd prefer."

Hanging her head, Ella stumbled her way over to the stalls, careful to keep the sorrowful look on her face until she had ducked out of sight. It didn't bother her really; she had peed in worse places on summer camp.

As she relieved herself, Ella kept thinking. They were probably halfway to Stone Mountain. Her uncle was in a nearby inn, but didn't want to risk anyone catching sight of her. These two goons had obviously been paid to help in the kidnapping – and it seemed it didn't sit well with one of them. Marn. He was the one Ella had to focus her attention on.

"What are you doing back there?"

"I'm…I'm sorry. I'm coming!" Ella shouted back, pitching her voice a little higher than it usually was.

She wandered back out into the main part of the barn, keeping her head low and her hands clasped in front of her.

Warren nodded to a corner of the barn. "Sit over there and keep your mouth shut. If you're good, we might even feed you." He threw a flask of water at her.

Ella made sure she missed it. As she scrabbled on the floor to pick it up, she heard a sigh from one of the men.

It might have been an hour later, after they'd sorted bedrolls out and gotten various packages out of the cart, that Marn came over with a pasty of sorts.

"Here," he said gruffly.

"Thank you," Ella whispered, taking the pasty and nibbling at it. It contained some sort of meat and potato mix. It tasted a bit like feet, but she was ravenous.

Marn grunted and wandered back over to where Warren was sat, but he kept shooting worried glances back at her. Ella ate her pasty and drew her knees up to her chest, resting her head on them. She kept her face a little tilted, so she could still see what was going on.

The time crawled by. Ella wasn't sure if a good moment was going to come at all, but suddenly, her luck changed.

"Gods, it stinks in this place," grumbled Warren. He got to his feet. "I'm going outside for some air. Keep an eye on her."

"Sure."

Warren grunted uncertainly, but got up and pulled a large key from his pocket. He unlocked the padlock that held the door shut and stepped outside.

Ella's heart started beating very quickly. This was it.

She started to cry.

Marn glanced up at her, looking unsure about whether he should do something. Ella started to sob louder.

"Here now, stop that!" Marn had gotten up and walked over to her. "Stop it!"

"I'm s-s-sorry," said Ella, through tears that were a little _too_ easy to produce. "It's j-just…I'm so f-f-f-fright-ened and I just w-want my Pa…" She wailed in earnest now.

A meaty hand patted her awkwardly on the shoulder. "I'm sure it'll be all right," said Marn, although his voice didn't sound confident.

"I feel sick," whispered Ella. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Oh, Mithros!" Marn looked at the door. "I'll take you to one of the stalls, shall I?"

"No, p-please!" Ella sobbed. "I j-just w-want to g-go outside for a bit. S-some fr-fresh air. I'll be good, I promise!"

There was a moment's hesitation. Ella's heart was in her throat. And then, "All right littl'un, come on." A pair of arms scooped her up like a baby. "Just for a bit, mind you."

He smelt of smoke and dirt, something that was helping the charade of feeling ill. Ella kept crying as Marn walked her through the door and out into the blessedly cool night.

Ella looked around but could not see Warren anywhere.

"Right, that's enough fresh air, back in we go."

"Oooh," Ella clutched her stomach and made a retching noise. She hit the cobbles with a bump as Marn basically dropped her to the floor.

Rolling, Ella got to her feet and ran.

Behind, she could hear Marn cursing and the pounding of feet following her, but the man was heavy and slow looking. Ella was sure she could outrun him.

All she really needed to worry about was –

Something struck her on the ankles. With a cry, Ella pitched forward, taking the fall on the flats of her arms like she had been taught in hand-to-hand combat.

A hand in her hair yanked backwards. Snarling a string of swear words, Ella found the bones between her captor's wrists and dug her fingernails in.

"Bitch!" cried Warren, letting go of her. Ella fell onto her hands again and scrambled upright, running smack into the broad chest of Marn, who had finally caught up.

He tried to wrap his arms around her, but she stamped, hard, on the inside of his foot. He gave a yelp and released her.

The blow to the side of her head was a surprise. It was more of a surprise to find her nose pressed into the cobblestones.

"Get off me!" Ella's shout was a little muffled. She wriggled against the weight that was pinning her to the floor, despite the sharp pain in her temple.

"Mithros, she's strong!" puffed the voice of one of the men above her. "Marn, make yourself useful for once and give me a hand!"

Out of one eye Ella could see a pair of feet hobbling over. "By the Black God, I think she's broken me foot! Of all the gods-cursed tricksy wenches!"

The weight pressing her to the floor shifted and Ella felt first one arm, then the other, wrenched above her head. She started to struggle but Warren gave the bruised spot on her head a hard knock.

When Ella had finished throwing up – for real this time – onto the cobbles, her legs had been seized by the other man and she found herself being hoisted into the air

"Gods, what a state. Marn, you really are bloody useless!"

"She tricked me, I tell you! She was all tears and 'I want me Pa' and then…"

"She's been at knight training for four years, dolt, haven't you been listening to anything?"

"Yeah but come on, that little thing? I didn't take it seriously…"

The two men continued to bicker as they carried Ella back into the barn and deposited her back in the trunk, facedown.

Awkwardly, Ella flipped over onto her back. "No!" she shouted, hoarsely, through the swimming pain in her head. "Please don't! Please!"

Warren scowled at her. "Should've thought about that before, you little wildcat."

The lid slammed shut, leaving her in darkness once more.


	24. Crossroads

**Bit of a short "inbetweeny" chapter. Thanks to everyone reviewing still and enjoying. The pace of updates might be slowing down a bit in the next week, so apologies for that (the real world beckons, worst luck).**

**I've been looking for a detailed map of Tortall and its fiefs, but couldn't find one. So I've used a bit of artistic licence. If I am massively out, then I'm sorry, but go with it, it fits the story better. Thanks and Happy New Year!**

_24_

Kel stared at the ceiling, hoping against all reason that what she was hearing wasn't correct.

"Are you _sure_?"

"Yes! He left a note. I'm pretty sure this one's not fake."

"When?"

"Must be a few hours ago now, we were in with the Brightleighs and the King for an age."

Grabbing Merric by the shoulder of his tunic, Kel dragged him into Neal's study. The mage looked up from the statement he was writing with a frown.

"Neal," she said in calm tones. "I'm just letting you know that I am going to kill your daughter. And that sorry excuse for a squire of his." She jerked her head at a red-faced Merric.

Neal frowned. "What do you mean? What've they been up to now?"

"They've gone after her."

xxx

Though it was a cloudless warm night, the moon was barely a sliver in the star speckled sky. It did not provide much light for map reading.

Cursing under her breath, Ro turned the much folded piece of paper up the other way and squinted.

"Why don't you just admit it, Queenscove. We're lost."

"Because, _Masbolle_," replied Ro, giving him a look. "We are not _lost_. I have just temporarily misplaced us on the map."

Duty snorted softly and shifted his weight. "You can mind your own business as well," Ro muttered to him.

Gerry made a groaning noise and lay along the neck of his own horse, Beeswax. "Well wake me when you've worked it out, won't you?"

Grumbling, she turned the map again, looked up at the crossroads in the Royal Forest they were currently at, and then back down at the ancient chart of the realm she had swiped from her father's study while he had been helping to deal with the Brightleighs. "I can't work out…it would help if I could actually _see_!" she snarled up at the sky, as if expecting the gods to bring the sun out again especially for her.

"You realise that thing's probably a hundred years out of date, knowing Cousin Neal?"

"_Shut up Gerry._ Mithros, if I'd known you were just going to piss and moan the whole time, I'd have left you back at the Palace."

"We should _both_ be back at the Palace. This is ludicrous. You might not care about getting into trouble, but I'm really going to cop it from Sir Merric when we get back, _if_ we get back at all that is…"

"Right that's it, I'm going this way, I'll find it on my own, go away you stupid – "

"I wouldn't go that way if I were you."

The new voice made them both start and look around. There was a shadowy mounted figure, a little further way back on the road they had just come down.

Both Ro and Gerry drew their swords, squabbling momentarily forgotten. "Who's there?" called Gerry. "Come closer so we can see you."

"Why are you following us?" added Ro.

The person drew nearer and both their jaws dropped when they saw who it was.

"I wouldn't go that way," continued Wyl. "Because Stone Mountain is _that_ way." He reined in his horse and pointed.

"Wyl!" gasped Ro. "What on earth are _you_ doing here?"

"I heard about all the kerfuffle with Ella and the exam and then that she'd gone missing," Wyl started to explain, his round face looking unusually solemn in the faint moonlight. "When the pages were released from their duties I went to look for you, but you weren't there and Ro's door was open, so I stuck my head in and saw the note you'd left saying you'd come after Ella and she'd been taken to Stone Mountain." He took a breath and added, "You really haven't been travelling that quickly, it was quite easy to catch up."

"Well, someone's been stopping to look at maps every two seconds," muttered Gerry.

"Wait, _what_ note?" asked Ro, confused. A second later realisation struck her. "Gerry, you _idiot_! What did you do a thing like that for?"

"You mean leave a note telling responsible adults where we've gone in case anything should happen to us? Sorry Ro, that was really remiss of me." Gerry shook his head in mock mortification.

"It was! Think about it!" Ro almost choked on her indignation. "If _he_ can catch up with us, then those 'responsible adults' won't be far behind and they'll drag us back before we get a chance to catch up with Ella!"

"I wouldn't worry about it, they were all still in some sort of meeting when I left," commented Wyl, almost cheerful now. "And you've come an awfully odd way, I didn't think many people used these old roads anymore. I only know because it's a shortcut we take when we visit my grandfather in Cavall. I thought I'd use it to catch you up later on." He cocked his head when neither of them did anything but stare at him in amazement for a moment.

"I _told_ you that map was old, Ro!" croaked Gerry, finally. He looked at Wyl. "So how do you know the way to Stone Mountain?"

"It's quite near Cavall, as a matter of fact. We pass through it every time we visit Grandpa Wyldon, much to Pa's disgust."

Gerry grinned. "Well, we finally have someone who knows where they're going!"

"Oh no!" Ro shook her head. "Wyl can tell us the way and then he's going back."

"I'm not!"

"Yes, you are," countered Ro, scowling. "You're a page, in service to the Palace. They'll kick you out of training if they know you've run off!"

"Oh, but it's okay for me to risk being turned out by my knight master," exclaimed Gerry.

"I'm not going back," repeated Wyl, cutting off Ro mid-retort. "Ella's my friend as well. I don't care if I get kicked out, as long as we rescue her. That's what knights do isn't it? Save damsels in distress despite terrible personal cost?"

Ro covered her face with her hands. "Gods, where do you _get_ these ideas?"

"Books," said Wyl, folding his arms. "And you can't make me go back. So there."

Ro sighed, looking from one stubborn boy to the other. _Goddess, grant me strength. It's bad enough my best friend's been kidnapped, but now I have to work with _these_ two to get her back? _

"Fine!" she said finally, throwing up her hands in defeat. "But no more stupid remarks, all right. That means you, Gerard."

As Ro pushed her horse on, down the right road this time, she heard Gerry murmur to Wyl, "So these damsels in distress…do they tend to be quiet, demure, beautiful maidens?"

"Generally, yes."

"If I were you, Wyl, I'd stop reading these fairy tales. They'll only depress you when you find out they're not real."


	25. Family

_25_

How much time had passed was hard to say. It could have been a whole day. It could have been only a couple of hours. Time had seemed to lose all meaning; drifting in and out of a strange dozing state.

She barely noticed the motion of the trunk changing this time. Didn't really bother listening to the muffled conversations. She didn't even do anything when the lid opened and the trunk tilted, tipping her out onto a carpeted floor.

"What the – "

"She's your problem now, Lady."

A door slammed somewhere nearby. From her angle, the light needling her eyes, Ella could make out carpet threads and the base of a piece of furniture she could not place. Then, a swishing hemline came into view; every so often a pair of dainty feet could be seen.

The fabric creased as whoever it was knelt next to her. "Ella? Oh Goddess, Ella? Are you all right?"

The voice was familiar, but she could not work out from where. Ella shut her eyes and went back to pretending it wasn't happening. It was too light in here. She'd become accustomed to darkness.

The voice moved away and gave instructions to another person in the room. There were some busy noises; clanking, grating and what sounded like water being poured out. Ella didn't like the noises. They seemed to chime in time with the throbbing in her temple.

Rustling nearby and then the voice was back, whispering soothing words as fingers removed first her boots, followed by her damp breeches and then the rest of her clothes. It didn't cross Ella's mind to protest.

"Some assistance, please."

Another set of hands helped to lift her off the floor. For a terrible moment Ella thought she was being put back in the trunk and opened her eyes. She squinted against the light, trying to see who was carrying her, just as she was gently lowered into warm water.

A bath.

A door opened and closed nearby. Whoever was left in the room washed her hair, cleaning away the dried vomit, taking care not to touch the hot, egg-sized bruise that had formed on her left temple. The steam, smell of lavender soap and warmth of the water started to bring Ella back to her senses a little bit. She turned her head to finally see the owner of the voice.

"There we are," smiled Evaline, her brown eyes belying worry and fear. "Isn't that better?"

Ella didn't reply. She just blinked back at her aunt.

Evaline looked uncomfortable. "Come on then, Ella dear, let's get you out and dried. Can you stand now, do you think?"

Hesitating, Ella nodded. Her aunt held out a hand for Ella to grip as she stood, unsteadily, and managed to clamber out of the bath tub. A big towel was wrapped around the girl and she was led over to a nearby stool.

Evaline buzzed around busily and Ella sat there, watching her. Her aunt produced a clean nightdress which Ella docilely accepted being dressed in. Just as Evaline was gently towel drying her hair, a serving girl came in from one of the three doors in the room, carrying a tray.

"Ah, thank you. Here we are then, Ella dear." A cup of warm, fragrant tea was held to her lips. "Not too quickly now."

Ella was clear headed enough now to reach up and grasp the cup herself. Her aunt smiled and moved away a little bit. "Here…these as well."

There were grapes on the tray and flaky, fresh cheese. Ella slowly picked at the food, feeling more and more human with each bite. She wasn't sure she liked it; now she was starting to think again…and thinking was bad.

The food gone and the last dregs of tea drained, Ella looked up, a question on her lips. Evaline cocked her head at her niece and sighed. "Not tonight, my love. You need sleep and besides…I'm sure I don't have the answers you're looking for. Not at all." She held a hand out to the girl and Ella grasped it, allowing her aunt to guide her to another door in the room.

It opened into a very small chamber; big enough only for a chest of drawers, desk and a narrow bed. Ella realised it was a servant's bedroom, attached to the dressing room of a noblewoman, such as was found in the big manor houses in the realm.

There was no question now of where she was.

Evaline led her over to the bed and proceeded to tuck Ella in, as if she were a small child. The woman glanced around the room. "Not the best accommodation I'm afraid, my love, but…" she swallowed what she was about to say and gave a faltering smile. "Well, it will do for the time being won't it?"

She caught Ella looking at the other door in the room; one that she guessed led straight out into the landing. Evaline shook her head. "No point. He has the key." She didn't elaborate. She didn't need to.

Ella turned her gaze back to her aunt. Evaline reached over and gently stroked her cheek, frowning as she looked at the bruise on Ella's temple. "We'll get a healer to see to that tomorrow."

"It's all right," whispered Ella.

Evaline bit a suddenly trembling lip. She leant forward and kissed Ella on the forehead. "I'm sorry," she murmured into her ear and then, without another word, she left by the door they had entered through, closing it behind her.

Ella waited, listening. It seemed to take a while, but then it came. _Click_. The sound of a key turning in a lock.

Her eyes started to burn and a lump blocked her throat. She took a deep breath through her nose and held it for as long as she could, staring hard at the ceiling. _It could be worse. It could. They could have left me in the trunk. They could have locked me in a dungeon…do people even _have_ dungeons anymore?... They could have starved me. They could have…_

A couple of tears escaped, despite her best efforts. Ella swiped them away impatiently, anger starting to seep back in. _This isn't over. They've got me here, sure, but let them try keeping me here. _

_Let them just try._

xxx

Morning came as a surprise. The events of the previous two days had meant Ella had fallen deeply asleep within moments.

She lay there trying to gather her bearings, as memories of the last few days assaulted her mind. She grimaced and squeezed her eyes shut.

Hammering on the outer door made her jump. "Get up! You've got ten minutes to get dressed for breakfast!" yelled a male voice on the other side.

Ella sat up and swung her feet to the floor, wincing as her head throbbed and the room span a little. Leaning over and clutching the desk, she hauled herself to her feet and made her way to the chest of drawers.

Opening the first one she found breast-bands, loincloths and stockings. The second held underskirts. The third and fourth a selection of gowns. Ella frowned as she pulled one out. They were hers; she had left them at Brightleigh last summer – the only time she had worn any dresses recently. There were three pairs of her leather slippers too.

Shaking her head at the sheer planning that had gone into this, Ella stripped off the nightgown; a horrible frilly affair, she noticed now, also hers – a gift from a well-meaning relative at Midwinter. Picking out the least offensive of her gowns, a muted blue cotton number, she dressed and pushed her feet into a pair of slippers. The gown was on the small side now, proof she had grown a little in the past year. It was too tight across her shoulders and arms in particular, and revealed a bit too much ankle.

Ella disliked dresses. She didn't see the point in them; breeches and shirts were so much more comfortable. It had been a source of many arguments between her and her mother, who always kept her wardrobe well stocked as a matter of principle. Family occasions and parties were non-negotiable; breeches were banned.

There was a mirror on the desk; in front of it was a hairbrush – Ella's, from home – and some flowery hair grips that were most certainly _not_ hers. Those she pushed to one side, wrinkling her nose, but she picked up the hairbrush and angled the mirror so she could see.

She almost didn't recognise the person in the mirror as herself. Her normally rosy cheeks were pallid and drawn. There were enormous dark shadows under her blue eyes, which looked bloodshot. The bruise on her temple had made the left side of her face puffy and her hair, which had been still damp when she had gone to sleep, stuck up at odd angles.

"Goddess, what a mess," she muttered to herself. Running the brush through her hair, biting her tongue as she caught the bruise, Ella worked until her white-gold locks fell straight to her shoulders once again. She pulled at her fringe, which she had meant to get cut after the big exam, until it hid most of the bruise and shielded her eyes somewhat.

Footsteps outside. Ella put down the hairbrush and pinched her cheeks to bring a bit of colour back into them. She pulled the covers straight on the bed and stood by the foot of it, hands folded in front of her, just as a key clinked in the lock.

Whatever the servants had been expecting, it wasn't the sight of the girl standing dressed and decorous, waiting for them. Ella suppressed a smile. They'd obviously been warned to anticipate some form of resistance. Well, she was full of surprises.

They'd find that out soon enough.

Neither of them spoke to her, but they beckoned for Ella to follow. She did, keeping a careful note of the corridors she walked down. She had not been to Stone Mountain for some years now, but there were certain parts of the manor house that were still familiar to her. She would use that information later.

Finally they came to a smallish dining room. Both servants bowed to her as they ushered her in – she was a prisoner then, but still a noble. Ella entered the room and stopped, looking at the people already sat at the table.

Her cousins, Derminia and Theodora, were staring at her, looking a little frightened. But then they always looked like that, Ella remembered, thinking back to when she had seen the two younger girls years ago. She had never met little Burchard; she guessed he must be breakfasting in the nursery. Evaline glanced up momentarily then looked back down at her plate. She was sporting a swollen lip that had not been there the night before. Guilt flooded Ella; it wasn't hard to work out her aunt had spoken up against the way Ella had been treated.

The guilt was replaced by fury as her eyes finally turned to the man behind all this. Aldren stood as Ella entered the room, a smug smile on his face. All Ella's plans of pretending to be compliant vanished from her head as sheer rage washed through her.

"Ellabelle," he said, inclining his head. "Good. Come and join us for breakfast, child."

He glanced at her as if expecting a curtsey – Ella knew he required it of his own children. She'd be damned if he was going to get one out of her. "Personally I'm surprised you let me down for breakfast, Uncle. I was expecting dry bread and water in my cell."

Aldren's expression flickered momentarily, but the smile remained. "I haven't ruled it out," he replied softly. "Sit."

_Pick your battles Ella,_ said her rational inner voice. _At least argue with him after you've eaten something. _

So she sat and waited silently as the servants placed sausages, eggs and toast before her, filling a cup with juice. Her stomach rumbled so loudly, Theodora looked up.

"Let us give thanks!" barked Aldren, making the girl start and look down again. The family bowed their heads, Ella reluctantly. "Bright Mithros, we thank you, for sustenance and for assisting in bringing our family back to its rightful path."

"So mote it be," murmured Evaline and the girls. Ella remained silent.

She noticed no one started eating until Aldren did. Ella avoided everyone else's eyes; she concentrated hard on the food in front of her, wolfing it down so quickly she barely tasted it. Putting her cutlery down with a clatter, Ella looked up with a smirk and let out a loud belch.

It fell into an appalled silence.

Both her cousins stared at her and then glanced nervously at each other. Evaline was watching her husband, waiting for his reaction. Ella turned her eyes to Aldren too.

He had paused with his fork halfway to his lips. He replaced it on his plate now, looking back at his niece through narrowed eyes. "One of the things you have learnt at page training, Ellabelle?" he said, his voice dangerously mild.

Ella grinned at him. "That's nothing, you should hear me burp the alphabet," she replied cheerfully. "Although I'm not as good as Gerry, he can do it backwards as well."

"I see," her uncle steepled his fingers. "What else did you learn there?"

"Oh lots of things. I can hold my breath underwater for three minutes. I can insult someone four different ways in Yamani. I can do a backflip. I can drink a pint of milk in fourteen seconds – I won that challenge, but I lost the one where you had to try and fit as many grapes in your mouth as possible, I could only manage twelve but Wyl did twenty-one, we always did say he had a massive gob, but – "

"I think I've heard quite enough." Aldren stood up, bracing his hands on the table. Derminia and Theodora flinched and looked down. Evaline was trying to surreptitiously shake her head at Ella. "My daughters will go to their tutor in a moment, who teaches them how to behave like proper noble ladies. You will attend with them. Things that you have learnt will be unlearnt very quickly and replaced by what you _should_ know. Am I understood on that count?"

Ella held his gaze. "And what if I refuse?"

"You will answer to me."

"Oh, Uncle," Ella raised her eyebrows. "Do you really want to see what _else_ I've learnt at page training?"

"Why, you insolent little…" Aldren made to move around the table, his hand raised.

Ella was too quick for him. She snatched up her eating knife, thrusting her chair out the way and standing in a combat stance. "Go on then. I _dare_ you."

She was well aware she probably looked ridiculous, a tiny girl in a blue dress, brandishing a blunt knife like it was a sword. Ella didn't care. The man was a bully and it was about time someone stood up to him.

It did make him pause. What would have happened next was anyone's guess, but Evaline had also gotten to her feet, hands pressed to her cheeks in horror. "Aldren, please! Don't…" she faltered as he turned to glare at her and turned her attention instead to Ella. "Ella, please do as he says. Just…for me. Do it for me. Please."

Looking into her aunt's pleading brown eyes, Ella felt her stomach turn over. The woman was terrified; terrified of what Aldren would do to Ella and probably about what he would do to others as well.

"Fine," she said, at last, slamming the knife down onto the table. "I'll go. Don't think for one moment though that I'm doing this for any reason other than Auntie Evaline."

Aldren's nostrils were flared with anger; his voice was tight with it. "You will be allowed that one slip. That _one_. If you ever speak to me in that manner again…"

"Message understood, Uncle." Ella looked at him with disgust. "It's so nice to be here, with loving and caring family."

"Out, now!" he snarled and then glanced at the other girls. "You as well! To your tutor and I _will _only hear good reports today."

Derminia and Theodora shot out of their seats as if the Black God himself were after them. It was only sheer force of will that made Ella follow them, without saying anything else or making any rude gestures. She could feel her uncle's stare as she left the room.

_I've got to get out of here. One way or another, I've got to escape._


	26. Miscreants

**You can thank the snow day I had yesterday for this chapter...no such luck having two in a row. **

**Enjoy! And thanks for all the lovely reviews still x**

26

"Pass it over!"

Ro folded the spyglass and handed it to Gerry, shielding her eyes from the late afternoon sun as she peered over the ridge they were lying belly-down on. Before them, gleaming in the light, lay the main town of the fief of Stone Mountain. It was a sprawling affair and looming over all of it, dark and ominous, stood the Lord of the Manor's house.

Except, it was more of a small castle, set up on a hill and surrounded by a moat, testament to the days when the realm of Tortall was not as peaceful as it was now.

Gerry lowered the spyglass and blew through his nose. "Hopeless," he declared. He looked askance at Ro to gauge her reaction to this. When she said nothing, but continued staring forlornly at the castle in the distance, his expression softened. "Listen, Ro, it was a brave idea, coming after her like this, but we were never going to be able to do it, just the three of us. Even if we had caught up to them before they'd reached here. Let's go back to Corus. If we explain ourselves well enough, maybe we'll get off with a scolding."

"Doubt it," she murmured softly, still gazing out over the ridge.

"Surely we can think of a way!" piped up Wyl, wriggling further up on Ro's other side. "We've been travelling for over two days; it can't have all been for nothing!" He looked over the side of the bluff they were on and paled a little at the height.

Ro shook her head. "I can't…" She clenched her fist in the grass, ripping blades of it up by the roots in her frustration. "I can't _think…_ We can't abandon her Gerry, we just _can't_."

"We won't be," he said, his tone unusually gentle. "Don't you think I'm as worried about her as you are?"

Looking at her cousin, Ro considered that comment. It was true, in the year just before Gerry attained his squirehood, he and Ella had struck up a relationship of sorts. Neither of them would really admit to it and – since they both had streaks of extreme stubbornness in them – it was a rocky affair at best. Ro only knew about it because she had walked in on the two of them holding hands in the library once, which had prompted a full confession from Ella…well, less confession and more confused rambling about feelings neither of them properly understood at the age of twelve.

During the rest of that year Ella and Gerry had snuck around, to avoid the likely harsh punishment that would have been meted out if anyone in authority had found out about their relationship; the pressure of trying to hide their true feelings adding to the fiery arguments which they seemed to have on a bi-weekly basis.

Then Gerry had disappeared from Palace life, in the third year of Ro and Ella's page training. Tired of being sympathetic towards her best friend's moping and knowing full-well what a fickle creature her cousin was, Ro had been somewhat relieved when Ella had thrown herself fully into page life once more. Over time she seemed to have almost forgotten her feelings for Gerry, apart from when he sent a rare letter or turned up unexpectedly. Then Ro would have to cope with the sighs and the cooing all over again for a while. It was exasperating.

Nervously, not wanting to give too much away and remembering that her gods-mother _was_ after all the Training Mistress, Ro had broached the subject with Kel during one of the holidays.

"A friend moping around about a lover gone astray?" Kel had smiled, looking up from polishing her glaive. "Sounds familiar. Who is it, can I ask?"

"Just a friend, you don't know them," Ro replied evasively. She cocked her head. "What d'you mean it 'sounds familiar'?"

"Your father," Kel had shaken her head. "I never knew in all my years someone moon over prospective lovers as much as he did. This was before your mother came along, of course."

Ro had blinked at that. Her father? _Mooning_ over people not her mother?

"Ask him one day to dig out some of the awful sonnets he used to write about all the beautiful court ladies when we were pages. They'll make you laugh!" added Kel, giving her glaive an experimental swing.

Not sure that she really wanted to, Ro had tried to get the suddenly uncomfortable conversation back on track. "So what did you do? When he was…you know…going on about someone you knew was probably no good for him?"

Kel shrugged. "Smiled, nodded, tried to keep his feet on the ground as much as possible…which was hard at times. A little gentle teasing never went amiss." Her hazel eyes had turned misty as she reminisced to herself with a soft smile. She shook herself and fixed her gaze on her gods-daughter with a sudden frown. "This is not about something going on between the pages is it? Because you all know that's forbidden."

"Of course it's not," Ro had answered swiftly; cursing, not for the first time, that she had not received the vigorous Yamani training her birth right entitled her to. And with that, cheeks reddened, she had changed the subject to more comfortable topics: fighting techniques and weaponry.

"Ro!" The exclamation from Gerry brought her back to their present situation. "You've been staring at me for about five minutes now. It's making me nervous."

"Sorry…" she said. "I was thinking…"

"Clearly. And have you thought of anything inspiring or are we still stuck?"

Ro didn't answer.

Gerry sighed, his dark hair flopping over his forehead. "Listen, I know it feels like abandoning her. I don't like it any more than you do. But we have no other choice! We don't even know for sure if this is where they took her."

"It is," replied Ro firmly.

"Erm, Ro…" said Wyl.

"It may be," continued Gerry, "But if that's the case then we're really stuck. If we go back to the Palace, they might have worked something else out by now."

"Gerry…?"

"They might have, but what?" Ro scowled. "There must be ways we can get inside the castle, perhaps disguise ourselves as servants or something…"

"Guys, you might want…"

"Are you _listening_ to yourself, Ro?" Gerry exclaimed. "How in Mithros' name is that going to work? How would we even go about it?"

"_Guys_!"

"What, Wyldon, for the love of the Goddess?" cried Ro, finally turning to look at the younger boy.

His gaze was not fixed on her, but at something behind the three of them, a worrying expression on his face.

Twisting around onto her side to follow Wyl's stare, Ro saw the dark shapes standing behind them.

"Uh oh…"

xxx

It was getting dark outside now, the only light given by the flickering candle on the small table next to where Ella was sat. It wasn't really enough to see properly, so she had to squint closely at the needlepoint on her lap.

Biting her tongue, so as not to swear as she stabbed herself in the finger for the hundredth time, Ella looked up at the room.

Her uncle had insisted that she sat with the ladies for the evening. That meant being in a dingy room with her aunt – who was also working on some embroidery – and her cousins. Derminia was tinkering on the harpsichord in the corner, while Theodora stood by her sister, warbling some song that was getting more irritating by the second.

Stifling a sigh, Ella steeled herself to stay in her chair and not climb the walls like she really wanted to. She had endured a whole morning of the girls' stuffy tutor who had taken great delight in admonishing her at every turn.

"You stand like a solider, Ellabelle! You should stand like a graceful heron, poised over a glassy lake. No, don't stride so! You should glide, like a skater, like your feet are not touching the ground. Don't scowl! You will give yourself lines prematurely; your expression should be demure, like so…"

Ella's hands had itched to find their way around the throat of the woman, but the memory of her aunt's plea and her uncle's warning stopped her. Besides, she had her cousins to think of too; any misdemeanour of hers would surely also cause them punishment as well.

So it was with bad grace that she forced herself to at least _look_ as if she gave a damn, while Derminia sailed through the morning's 'lessons' plied with compliments. Theodora, on the other hand, was almost as bad as Ella was, and was scolded just as much.

The difference was, while the insults and rebukes glanced off Ella – used to hearing reprimands given at the volume of a full on battle cry – the chubby eight year old looked close to tears at every word. It was that, more than anything else, which made Ella want to knock the old fusspot through the wall.

After they had eaten lunch in the schoolroom, the girls had then spent the afternoon learning music and how to dance. There was no reading or writing, no accountancy, nothing that Ella was sure was normally taught even in the convent. Nothing that would assist a woman in the running of a fief.

It was this thought she pondered over now, in the dimming evening light, as she sewed. Flexing her shoulders to work out the cramp that had gathered there, Ella held her embroidery up to admire it. She wasn't doing too badly, she admitted to herself. She had only been at it for an hour and already had finished the letters: "This is cra".

"How's it going, Ella dear?" asked Evaline, softly, when there was a break in Derminia's playing.

"All right," replied Ella. "Just need to do the 'P' and I'm pretty much finished. I might even do a border for it."

Giving a slightly confused smile, Evaline went to ask a question, no doubt about the 'peas' that Ella was embroidering, when the door swung open and Aldren strode in.

Leaping to their feet, Evaline and the girls curtseyed as the Lord of the Manor entered. Ella was slower to rise and gave the sort of bow a page would, keeping her eyes fixed on her uncle's face.

His nostrils flared, but he surprised Ella with a smile. "I see a scene of complete harmony in here, ladies. How lovely. See, what a pleasure it is if we all stick to our allotted roles?"

As the others murmured their assent, Ella stuffed her embroidery out of sight down the side of the chair.

Her uncle regarded her for a moment, before beckoning. "Come with me for a moment, Ellabelle. I have something I wish to show you."

Knowing whatever it was couldn't be good, Ella reluctantly complied. As she left the room, trailing her uncle and flanked as ever by a pair of burly servants, her eyes scanned the corridor as they had been every time she was allowed to leave a room – looking all the time for possible escape routes.

As they passed one door, Ella sniffed the air, frowning. Something – an idea, a ghost of an idea – was nagging at the back of her mind. But try as she might, it wouldn't form.

Preoccupied, Ella didn't really notice as they entered a chamber she hadn't been in yet. It was only when her uncle stopped and she walked directly into his back that she fully focussed once more on what they were doing.

"There's a few people I thought you might like to see," said Aldren, casually, looking down at her. As Ella frowned, he stepped aside, making sure she could see into the room.

There were four heavily armed men, wearing Stone Mountain colours. They flanked three other people, but who these people were, Ella could not tell.

They had hoods over their heads. Their hands were tied behind their backs.

Confused, Ella looked up at her uncle, a question rising in her throat. Glancing back at the three hooded figures, Ella swallowed the question as she noticed some familiarities about them.

"Don't you recognise them?" asked Aldren, innocently. Ella remained silent, willing what she had just worked out not to be true. "I suppose I am making this a little hard for you. Captain?"

With a nod, the guards stepped forward and pulled off the hoods.

"My border patrol found these three miscreants lurking around just above the city. Spying, it would seem. They overheard some…interesting conversation from them. Conversation that involved plans of breaking into this castle, in fact. What do you make of that, Ellabelle?" Aldren paced slowly in between Ella and the others.

She did not reply. Her eyes remained fixed on her uncle's three captives, in particular on Ro's face. Her best friend was sporting a new bruise on her cheekbone, just visible above the strip of cloth gagging her. Her long dark hair had been pulled loose from its braid by the hood and lay in sweaty strands over her forehead; but her green eyes held only anger as she watched Ella's uncle walk up and down the room.


	27. No Way Out

**I promise I did not intend to leave you dangling for SO LONG on that cruel cliffhanger. I have a string of excuses (work not being the least of them) but my main one is that, although I knew where I wanted my plot to go (a rare thing for me!) every time I sat down to write this chapter my brain made this noise: *pfft!* and refused to work.**

**Anyway, enough of my gabbling. For all those still reading (and anyone new!) thanks and I look forward to your wonderful feedback. **

27

This was not quite how she had anticipated their rescue effort turning out, Ro ruminated, as she watched Aldren of Stone Mountain carefully.

They had been overpowered embarrassingly easily up on the ridge; a page and two young squires being no match for the four heavily armed men-at-arms who had been on patrol of the border. Stripped of their weapons, bound, hooded and slung unceremoniously over the saddles of their own horses, the three youngsters had found themselves here.

At least they had found their way into the castle…although that now seemed to count for very little.

Ro could feel Wyl trembling next to her – the boy was clearly terrified. She snuck a glance to her other side. Gerry was staring somewhere up where the wall met the ceiling. He was very pale.

She turned her own gaze back to the scene in front of her. Aldren was still pacing the room, still talking some drivel; she wasn't really listening. Ro's eyes found Ella's once more. Under the anger that was bubbling beneath the surface of her skin, Ro felt her stomach twist at the thought of their failure. Her best friend looked smaller than ever somehow, in a blue cotton summer dress – could she remember ever seeing Ella wear a dress before? – a livid bruise on one temple just visible under her gold hair. It reminded Ro of her own bruise, payback from the guard she had kicked in what her father referred to as "the unmentionables".

Ella was whiter than Gerry, if that was possible, her little fists clenched at her sides. She stood perfectly rigid, not saying a word.

"…and so the choice is simple really. What have you to say about it, Ellabelle?"

Both Ella and Ro realised at the same time they hadn't been listening. In unison, they turned to look at Aldren, who had stopped pacing and was standing with his arms folded, looking amused.

Cramp shot across Ro's shoulders as she pulled at her bindings. Nothing would have given her more pleasure at that moment than wiping the self-satisfied look off the man's face.

"What?" croaked Ella, finally finding her voice, "What choice?"

Aldren shook his head sadly. "Women, they never listen…the choice I have been explaining to you. As Lord of this fief, I am perfectly within my rights to deal with trespassers as I see fit. And were this a simple case of common scoundrels I would not hesitate to have these three hanged at the gallows."

There was a muffled squeak from Wyl. Gerry's head snapped round to look at Aldren. Ro stopped her struggling and fell still, the enormity of their situation finally hitting her like a brick wall. They were completely at the mercy of this man. She felt a trickled of sweat slide between her shoulder blades.

"As it is…and as much as it pains me to admit…they are the children of fellow nobles. Although I mourn to think what once great families like Queenscove have come to these days, producing half-foreign whelps like this one here."

A pair of big hands caught Ro by the upper arms as she lunged forward, so that her flailing boot connected with thin air instead of Aldren. He merely raised his eyebrows at her muffled curses.

Ella's pale face flushed with rage. "Don't speak about her like that, you ignorant son of a – "

The slap was loud; enough to break Gerry and Wyl out of their fear trances. They were also both restrained by the guards standing behind.

"_Enough_," growled Aldren. "Or I may rethink my decision after all."

He turned his attention back to Ella, who was breathing heavily, but otherwise ignoring the bright pink mark on her cheek. Her blue eyes were over-bright and sparkled as she glared at her uncle.

"As I was saying," Aldren readjusted his tunic and took a breath through his nose. "Since these three are of noble birth and…well, are silly children after all…I will be lenient. Their weapons and horses I shall confiscate, until I see fit to return them to the Crown. They will be turned out on the borders of my lands with nothing more than a good whipping to remind them of the laws they have broken."

"_No_, you _can't_…" Ella stopped as her uncle gave her a look.

"Don't worry yourself, Ellabelle. You're not going to miss out on the beating I should have given you much earlier – Mithros knows the _beatings_ your parents should have given you on many an occasion – and then you will return to your room where you will stay, with no supper, until the morning. When that time comes I expect a transformed niece of mine to appear at breakfast and we shall say no more of this horrid business. Understood?"

"I…I won't…"

Aldren bent close, his voice little more than a whisper. "You won't _what_? You have no choice. If this is the only _rescue_ _party_ that is going to be sent, then if I were you I'd cut your losses, because it's a pretty poor attempt. No one cares Ellabelle; not about women becoming knights, not about what happens to you. The only thing there is, is your family and its good name. It is not too late to make that right again. Now, do I let these three go with mere smarting backsides, or is a more severe punishment in order?"

Feeling sick – more for Ella than because of what was going to happen to them – Ro saw her best friend break in front of her. Ella's shoulders slumped and her head hung low, tears streaming down her face.

"Very well," Aldren straightened and nodded to the men-at-arms. "You know what to do."

xxx

It was midnight. The watch cried out the hour faintly, in the distance, and the moon came out from behind a cloud. It shone through the tiny window and hit the wall of the chamber.

Ella, lying on her side in the same position she had been for the last few hours, watched the play of light on the wall. The same hopeless thoughts that had been looping through her mind came back full circle.

There was no way out.

Her friends had tried to help her, but had gotten into serious trouble. And would probably get into more, because who _knew_ what would happen to them on the way back to Corus, with no horses or weapons? Who knew what punishments awaited them when they got back?

There was no way out.

And it was true. No other search party had been sent. It had been over three days now. Shouldn't there have been some news from her father? Lady Keladry? Had they really just forgotten her? Or had they been deceived into thinking she'd run off?

There was no way out.

Where was her mother? She was the driving force behind all this. Had she stayed behind in Corus to make sure no one came looking for her?

There was no way out.

And when…if…the truth did come out, when the others got back to the Palace maybe…would anything be done? Her uncle was relatively safe on his own lands. No one could touch him without igniting war. No one would want to do that just for _her_.

There was no way out.

There was no way out.

There was…

A scuffling noise from the door that adjoined her room to the bigger, lady's dressing room, broke into Ella's thoughts. Wiping her sleeve over her eyes, she rolled off the bed, grimacing – her uncle had been as good as his word about the whipping and her rump was hurting dreadfully – and tiptoed over to the door.

There was a faint _click_ and the door handle turned slowly. Ella stepped back a pace as the door opened a fraction, not knowing what to expect now, at this time of night…

"Ellabelle?"

Her fast-beating heart started to slow as a slight figure slipped into the dark room. "Derminia? What…how…?"

The moonlight was just enough to show the outline of her eleven-year old cousin, in her nightgown with a blanket around her shoulders.

"Mama left the key on her dresser. I guessed…I _hoped_ it was the one to this room."

"I don't…" Ella was perplexed. She'd never spoken more than a couple of words to Derminia. Her cousin embodied everything she disliked about traditional noble girls; she was simpering, weak-minded and tried too hard to please.

Or at least, that's what she'd thought…

"What are you doing?" Ella whispered finally, getting a hold on herself. "If your father catches you…"

"I…I d-don't care." The girl's voice trembled, but she lifted her head up high. "I'm going to help you escape and then I'm coming with you."

Ella actually laughed, before biting her lip to hold in the noise. "Are you crazy? How, pray tell, are you going to do that?"

There was a hesitation. "Well…I got the key, didn't I? And I also managed to swipe this!" Derminia pulled out something from under the blanket and handed it to Ella.

The older girl took the little belt knife and shook her head. "And what good will this do?"

"You can fight!" Derminia's voice was low and urgent. "You have a weapon now. You can fight your way out if you have to!"

Shaking her head incredulously, Ella sat on the edge of the bed, and then promptly regretted it. "Ouch! Listen, Derminia…"

"Demi," came the firm interruption.

That elicited a smile. "Ella. Listen, Demi…I'm flattered, but…I don't think I'm going to break through your father's guards on my own with one little knife. I think even Lady Keladry would have a problem doing that and she's five times as big as me."

"Oh…" the springs on the bed creaked as Demi sat next to her. The girl's pretty face was lit up by the moonlight. It looked downcast. "I just thought…I don't know…"

Ella put a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "How long have you felt like this?"

Demi shrugged. "A while. Since your last visit and you said you were going to be doing page training. I'd never dreamed there was anything else than doing what Father said before. And then this morning…no one's _ever_ stood up to Father like that! You were so brave!"

"Didn't get me very far though, did it?" murmured Ella, turning the belt knife over in her hands.

"Can you really do all those things you said you could?" Demi sounded eager. "Can you really do a backflip? And swear in Yamani? Could you teach me?"

"I can, but I'm not sure there's enough room in here…"

"And is Lady Keladry all that they say she is? Mama's told us the stories, even though she's not supposed to. Is she really the Protector of the Small with the hand of Fate upon her? Is she really as tall as a giant and strong as one too?"

Ella laughed again, this time more softly. "Lady Keladry is…she's amazing all right, but she's as human as you or I. That's what makes her more amazing sometimes, I think. And she's tall, but not as tall as a giant. Mind you, compared to me…"

That got a giggle from Demi, who was half an inch taller than her older cousin. The girls fell quiet for a bit.

"You'd better get going and lock the door behind you," said Ella, finally. "I've gotten enough people into trouble today."

"Do you think they'd take me? As a page? I know I'm a bit too old…"

Ella sighed. Demi was on a one-track train of thought. "My best friend's papa, he was fifteen when he started. Come on, Demi, you really need to…"

"I know, it's just…" Demi shook her head, her shimmering pigtails dancing in the moonlight. "I'd give _anything_ to get away from here. Truly I would. I know I seem like a silly girl, but…oh, who am I fooling? I'm going to end up like one of those damsels in the stories, good for nothing but being rescued _by_ brave knights, not being one myself."

Something clicked in Ella's head. Wyl was always reading those silly stories; the ones where knights were slaying dragons left, right, and centre; the ones where only the evil people ever died and the beautiful maiden always got rescued from the person who had kidnapped her…

She looked down at the dagger in her hands.

The ghost of an idea she'd had earlier that evening swirled back into her mind and became fully formed.

"You're right, I'd better go. I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking really, I just – "

"Demi," Ella cut her off. "Did you mean what you said? About wanting to get away from here more than _anything_?"

The girl blinked and nodded. "Yes…"

"Really? You're willing to risk everything you have?"

A stronger nod this time. "Yes."

"What about your mother and Theodora?"

"I'd talk to the king," came the response. Demi had clearly been working this out for a while. "Once I tell him what's going on…surely there must be something he could do? And Mama…Mama always said she'd give the world for me to get away from Stone Mountain. I'd bring Dora with us, but she's still quite little and a cry-baby as well – "

Ella interrupted again. "That settles it then. We leave tonight. In fact, we leave now."

Demi's mouth hung open. She suddenly looked a little scared. "W-what? But you said before…"

"That was before. That was before I had a plan."


	28. Escape

**Massive thanks to all those who reviewed, or just read and enjoyed! :o) **

28

The corridor was mercifully silent as the two girls crept down it, shod in their soft leather slippers. Moonlight from the windows was their only guide.

At the back of her mind, Ella knew this plan was doomed to failure – they hadn't prepared enough; they had no supplies, they were still in their _nightgowns_ for gods' sake; Demi put on a brave front but she was probably just going to slow things down; Ella's initial idea might not even work and what would happen if…

Gritting her teeth, she clasped Demi's hand firmly with her left hand and resettled her grip on the dagger with her right. She couldn't stay here another night. She wouldn't. And even if it did fail, even if they were caught, it would send a vital message to her Uncle.

Ella wasn't about to give in that easily.

"Here…" Demi breathed in her ear. "There's a servant's staircase that leads to the floor below."

The door in the wooden panelling was nearly invisible; you would only see it if you knew what to look for. Giving the door a gentle push, it revealed a narrow spiral stone staircase. As the girls started down it, the door swung shut again, leaving them in total darkness.

Demi gasped behind Ella, tightening her hold on her older cousin's hand. "Oh! We should have brought a lamp…"

"No, that would only make us more likely to be spotted. It's fine, we can feel our way down carefully. Just hang on to me."

"Ella? You still haven't told me how we're going to get out."

Neither of them was speaking above the softest of whispers, but even that sounded too loud to Ella's straining ears.

"Trust me. And shush!"

Her outstretched right hand, the one clutching the knife, finally came into contact with another door. They had reached the bottom of the stairs.

Ella paused, putting her ear up to the wood and listening with all her might. She could hear nothing above the sound of her own heart and heavy breathing. There was no sign of light from underneath the door.

"Be ready." Her lips found Demi's ear in the dark. "We might have to make a run for it."

There was no reply except a quick intake of breath and a squeeze of the fingers. Ella took that as assent.

Using the dagger, Ella slowly located and lifted the latch. Ever so slightly, she inched open the door and put her eye to the opening. It took a while for her vision to become used to the weak light, but once it did, she was relieved to find no one about.

The girls stepped quietly into the hallway.

"Whereabouts are we?" murmured Ella.

"That door there leads to the ladies' drawing room. The one we were in this evening before…before Father called you away."

_Perfect_, thought Ella, hardly daring to believe their good luck. _Now all we need to do is…_

An unwelcome sound reached their ears. Footsteps, heavy, two sets, coming towards them. Around the corner of the corridor, a flickering light could be seen.

"Oh!" gasped Demi.

"Damn it!" hissed Ella. "Come on, quickly!"

Tugging hard on Demi's hand, Ella goaded the girl into a quiet jog, away from the footsteps. Fear spiked through her body, waiting for the moment when –

"Here! What are you doing?"

Ella swore loudly, the need for secrecy over. "Run Demi!" She started to sprint, pulling her cousin along behind.

But the younger girl was beginning to panic and was not used to such bursts of activity. She lagged, slowing their pace and Ella was aware of the two night-watchmen closing in behind them.

The door she had been aiming for was now in sight – in sight but just out of reach, as Ella felt a hand swipe at the back of her gown.

It was time for plan B, something she had been hoping to avoid.

Ella skidded to a halt and, before Demi had time to react, twisted the hand holding her cousin so the girl's arm was wrenched behind her back. Ella whirled them both to face the guards and pressed the dagger to Demi's throat.

"Back off! Or you're going to have to do a lot of explaining to his Lordship!"

Both the men froze at the sight of their Lord's daughter being held at knifepoint by the crazy Brightleigh girl. They gave each other glances.

"Don't be daft. Put the knife down and step away, before someone gets hurt."

"I'm warning you!" Ella snapped as one of them risked a step forward. She tightened her grip on a terrified Demi, who was rigid with fear, tears pouring down her cheeks. _Oh Mithros forgive me. I'm so sorry Demi!_

"All right! All right! Just…take it easy," said the older of the two night-watchmen, holding his hands up in supplication. The younger one, the one carrying the lantern, was glancing between his superior and the scene before him, unsure of what to do.

"I said back off!" Ella repeated, starting to back away herself as she did so. Risking a glance behind her, she saw she was only steps away from her destination.

Looking back round quickly, Ella saw the younger man had started to go for help. "Stay where you are!" she shouted. "Are you _stupid?_ Do you _want_ her to die?"

Demi gave a loud sob and both men halted once more.

Ella's heel met the wooden panel of the door. Keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the men, she shifted her grip on Demi and the knife. "Open the door," she ordered the younger girl, the point of the knife now at the back of her neck.

Fumbling with her one free hand, Demi managed to lift the latch. As soon as the door was partway open, Ella shoved the girl inside and followed quickly behind, slamming the heavy door behind her and groping for the bolt she knew was on this side. Locating it, Ella thumped it home firmly. Satisfied that no one was going to be getting in any time soon, she allowed herself a moment for her knees to go weak, crumpling to the floor and gasping for breath.

She looked up, once more a small window the only illumination in the tiny room they were in, to see Demi huddled in a corner as far away from Ella as possible. The girl was gripping her knees and staring at her in horror.

Ella slid over to her cousin. "Demi, listen, I'm – " the younger girl squealed and started to cry hysterically, pressing herself as far back into the wall as she could.

Ella was mortified. "Demi, please, I'm sorry…" she realised she was still holding the knife which didn't help matters and laid it to one side. She lifted her empty hands. "See, I didn't mean to…"

Her words were drowned out. Over _that_ noise, Ella could hear louder sounds from outside now. It seemed backup had arrived. They didn't have long. Urgency overrode her sympathy.

Gripping hold of the girl's shoulder, Ella pressed her other hand over Demi's mouth, stifling her cries. "_Listen_. I'm sorry. It was the only way we could get away. I wasn't really going to hurt you, you dolt! But I couldn't have warned you I was going to do it, because it needed to be realistic, understand?"

A pair of huge blue eyes, swimming in tears, stared back at her.

Ella sighed. "You have to pull yourself together and decide. Do you still want to come with me? Because if you don't, then that's fine, you can stay here. It looks like I kidnapped you now, you see? It gives you an excuse to back out. And you might want to take it, because this next bit isn't going to be pretty."

There was more commotion outside and someone hammered on the door. "Open up! Do you hear! His Lordship is on his way and the door _will_ be open by then, or we'll break it down! So open up!"

Glancing at the door, a large oak affair that would take them a good while to smash down, Ella turned back to Demi. "I'm going to take my hand away, all right? You just need to be calm and listen. And I'm sorry. Again." Slowly, she withdrew her hand.

The younger girl looked at her reproachfully. "You hurt my arm. Earlier," Demi sniffed, rubbing the offended limb.

Ella pulled a face. "I am _really_ sorry. I didn't cut your neck at all, did I?"

Shaking her head, Demi took a shuddering breath and held it for a moment. "What do you mean the next bit isn't going to be pretty? Why have we come here? There's no way out!"

More hammering on the door, but Ella ignored it, climbing to her feet instead. She could understand Demi's confusion. The tiny garderobe they were in had one little window, too small for even Ella to clamber out of. And they were still on the second floor of the castle – the drop was sheer, all the way down to the moat.

Picking up the knife, ignoring the flinch that Demi gave as she did so, Ella peered down the hole in the raised platform that served as the privy. Unlike normal garderobes, this one was not also used as a closet for clothes, but was small and off a main corridor on one of the lower levels of the castle. All the others Ella had seen were on the upper levels – too risky for her needs.

Frowning, but at least no longer crying, Demi also got to her feet and joined Ella in looking down the hole. She wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Yuck! Why are you staring down there?"

It didn't smell pretty, Ella had to admit – although she refused to think about it too much right now. What she was most interested in was the cool draft that was also blowing up the privy.

The hammering on the door had stopped and frantic muttering was all that could now be heard from outside.

Ella pulled off her dressing gown but removed the tie belt. That she wrapped around the waist of her nightdress, thrusting the dagger in there for safekeeping. She perched on the edge of the privy, wincing at the welts on her backside, and swung her legs round until they dangled down the hole.

A noise from Demi made her glance up. The young girl was staring at her disbelievingly. "You're not being serious? You _can't…_"

"Ellabelle!" That thunderous voice from the other side of the door was unmistakeable. "Ellabelle, open this door immediately and release my daughter! If you do, then I will be merciful. If you force us to break it down, or if you have harmed Derminia in anyway then so help me…"

Aldren didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to. Punishments for kidnapping were harsh, even amongst nobles since Lady Keladry had made the king work for changes all those years ago. Ella knew she was taking a risk when she first had the idea to fake the kidnapping of Demi. That's why she could not afford to wait any longer.

"Make a decision, quickly," she hissed at Demi. "Are you coming or are you staying? I won't think less of you if you do, in fact it might be better…"

Demi stared at Ella and then down the privy hole. She seemed speechless. Just then an almighty thud on the door made them both jump.

"I…I'll come with you…" whispered Demi.

Ella was unsure, but nodded. "I'll go first. Wait until I say so then follow. Brace your back, arms and legs against the sides and inch your way down _carefully_. It's narrow and slippery, but if we go slow, it should be fine."

The look on Demi's face at the idea of touching the sides of the privy was indescribable, but she nodded reluctantly.

Another loud crash. Taking a deep breath, Ella lowered herself down into the hole. She used her feet to push herself back against the opposite wall and, braced as best she could, started to inch her way down.

It was horrible. There was no preparing herself for just how horrible it was. Ella tried not to breathe through her nose, but ended up tasting the smell at the back of her throat. The walls were slick – she wasn't thinking about that, she wasn't, she wasn't – and it made it difficult not to fall. Her leather slippers had no grip and Ella was regretting not taking them off. It was too late; the space was far too narrow for her to do anything about that now.

Ella risked a glance up to see Demi's worried face hovering over the hole. "Come on. It's not so bad once you get going." _I'm such a terrible liar_, she thought.

There was a long silence, and Ella thought Demi might have changed her mind about coming, but then a soft whimper sounded from above.

The whimpering was quickly drowned out by the loudest crash yet, followed by men shouting. Demi gave a scream and suddenly a heavy weight crashed onto Ella from above, landing squarely on the top of her head.

Ella lost her grip on the sides of the hole and plummeted down the shaft at an alarming speed for what seemed like forever, but in reality was mere seconds. Instinctively, she slammed her feet, back and arms into the sides of the tunnel, in an attempt to slow their fall. It worked; Ella finally came to a halt, with Demi's dead weight still resting on the back of her neck.

Her heart was racing at a startling rate and Ella was shaking; from shock and from trying to hold her own body weight and someone else's suspended. "Demi? Demi!"

The weight above her shifted slightly and Ella heard a groan. "I…I slipped…they tried to grab me…I hit my head…"

Through gritted teeth, Ella managed to ask, "Are you badly hurt?"

"No…no I think just a bump. Oh gods…"

"Don't start crying! For Mithros' sake!" One of Ella's feet slipped. She quickly righted it, re-bracing herself against the slimy sides of the shaft. "Demi, you have to take your own weight, I can't hold us both for much longer!"

"Oh…oh…" Through the gasping and snivelling, Ella felt the weight pressing down on her shift until she could shuffle down a bit.

"Right…good…are you okay now?"

"I…I…I th-think so," came the gulping reply. "I can hear them above me! What if they come down after us?"

"They won't" replied Ella. "_We_ barely fit down here. None of them are going to and besides…I can't see anyone volunteering, can you? Now come on! Let's get out of here."

Little by little, the girls edged their way down the privy hole. As they got moving once again, Ella became aware of a stinging pain on her elbows, forearms and shoulder blades – her nightgown had torn when she tried to stop herself and Demi from falling and it felt like she had taken several layers of skin off. Feeling a little sick at the idea of the kind of dirt that must be working its way into her grazes, Ella tried her best to ignore her injuries and concentrate on moving down, moving down…

"Ella…I'm tired…I don't think I can go on much longer…" Demi's voice sounded weak.

Supressing a sigh, Ella replied, "It's all right. The tunnel starts to slope a little here. And I can feel more fresh air. We're nearly there."

"I think I'm going to – ah!"

_Oh no_, Ella had time to think, before Demi's weight hit her again. Her own limbs felt like lead and this time, she didn't have the strength to stop their descent.

Screaming, the cousins slid the last few feet down the shaft and shot out into the moonlight. The final part of their fall was through thin air and they entered the moat with a loud splash.

The shock of the cold water released adrenaline through Ella. For a moment, she panicked, memories of that time years before where she had fallen through the hole in the ice trying to save Hannett. But it was summer time and, although the water was chilly, it was not freezing. Instinctively, Ella struck out for the surface, kicking her ruined slippers off as she did.

She broke through, gasping for air and pushing weeds out of her face. "Demi?" she choked, looking round for her cousin.

Splashing to her left drew Ella's attention – it was darker now than it had been, the moon had gone behind clouds again. She swam with steady strokes over to where the other girl was floundering.

_Of course she can't swim,_ thought Ella wearily. "Stay still, I've got you! Just lay back and float."

Whether she heard the no-nonsense tone in Ella's voice, or whether she had simply exhausted herself, Demi complied. Wrapping one hand under Demi's chin, Ella started to swim to the nearest bank.

Finally feeling soft mud between her toes, Ella changed her grip until she had Demi under the armpits and hauled her out onto the bank amongst the reeds. There, she collapsed next to her cousin.

It was tempting just to lay there and shiver for a moment. Ella couldn't remember when she had felt so tired before. They had been fortunate; the bank of the moat Ella had chosen by accident was the furthest away from the drawbridge and any other dwellings.

That didn't mean they were safe, however.

"Come on," Ella sat up, biting back a groan. "We need to get moving." When Demi didn't answer, she prodded the younger girl until she got a response.

Demi curled into a ball and whined. "I don't want to…"

"Tough biscuits. Now come on! Up!"

With much poking, pinching and cajoling, she got Demi up on her feet. Taking a few moments to get her bearings, Ella looked at the buildings of the fief in the near-distance and then at the woods behind her.

Looking back at the fief, she saw a group of moving lights. That made her mind up.

"This way. We'll get into the forest first then find our bearings later," she racked her brains to try and remember where Corus was in relation to Stone Mountain. North? North-west? She thought so, trying to remember the lessons in geography they'd had (not one of her strong points). "North-west…does that sound right for Corus?"

"Wh-what?" shivered Demi. "I've never been."

Ella looked askance at her and sighed. Maybe she should have insisted the girl stayed behind. This was going to be hard enough as it was without someone like Demi tagging along and slowing her down.

"Come on, let's not waste any more time."


	29. Luck

**Still huge thanks to everyone reviewing and reading! **

**Aaah...I do love a good cliffhanger, don't you? ;o)**

29

The sky was lightening above the treeline, when they crawled dejectedly out from the bushes they'd sheltered under for the night. It was still too early to really be called morning, but necessity meant they had to start moving once more.

"I'm hungry."

"Mithros, Wyl, the first words out of your mouth are a whinge. I never thought anyone could whinge that much, but you've definitely proved me wrong in the last day."

The younger boy blushed and stared at his feet. His normally cheerful countenance had been one of abject misery ever since they had been caught out by the Stone Mountain guards. "I'm sorry Gerry. It's just…" his chin trembled.

Gerry sighed and placed a hand on the lad's shoulder. "No, I'm sorry Wyl. I didn't mean to snap at you. We're all hungry and tired – "

"And sore," added Wyl, rubbing his backside with a wince.

"Yep, and sore," Gerry shook his head. "What a mess." He glanced over at where Ro was waiting; her back turned to them and her arms folded. She hadn't said a word since their release.

Steeling himself, Gerry walked over to his cousin. "Ro?" When there was no response, he took a deep breath and continued. "Ro, come on. We've got to get back to Corus today; I'm not spending another night like that one. We were lucky it didn't rain. Or that we weren't found by bandits. We need to find the road again."

There was the tiniest hint of a shrug. Ro wouldn't meet his eyes.

Gerry was starting to feel angry. He grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ro! Ryoku! For gods' sake, stop whatever this is! Why won't you talk to me? What did I do? I'm sorry, for whatever it was, but what did I do?"

She blinked and finally looked at him in surprise. "I'm not mad at _you,_ Gerry."

"Well that's a first," he grinned crookedly and then turned serious. "Then what's all this about?"

Ro opened her mouth, stopped, swallowed, tried again. "It's all my fault."

"What is?"

"_This_!" Ro gestured around at them. "I'm so…if I hadn't insisted we run off and find Ella, then this wouldn't have happened. We got Ella into more trouble; I've got _you_ into trouble…and for what? Nothing! We just made the whole thing worse, if that was possible and…" The rest of the sentence was lost in a storm of sobbing.

Gerry was at a loss. He had never been good with crying girls – as one of a large family of rambunctious boys, the only tears he'd ever really come across were his own. And usually they happened in private. Arguments between him and his brothers were settled with fists, feet and laughs afterwards. Being a page brought him into contact with the sorts of girls who made it a mission _not_ to cry, no matter what. It wasn't fool proof, both Ella and Ro had burst into tears on occasion – but then, didn't everyone after the third lap of the curtain wall in the rain? – but he usually took himself off while it was going on.

Had Ella ever cried when they were together, on their own? With a pang of guilt, Gerry realised he couldn't remember. They had hugged, kissed, held hands; she had screamed and shouted at him on occasion, and once or twice hit him too. He had never retaliated physically, which had always seemed to aggravate her more, especially when his response to her questioning was always; "I don't hit girls…unless it's in the training yard."

But no, he decided, Ella had never cried when she was with him. Had she gone and cried to Ro? Probably, Gerry realised, feeling even more uncomfortable.

_None of this is helping you now, Gerard_, his frantic inner voice reminded him. Ro was still standing in front of him, her face buried in her hands and her shoulders heaving.

Looking at Wyl for assistance, Gerry was horrified to see the younger boy was also crying. _Oh no! What do I do _now?

He reached out a tentative hand and patted Ro on the shoulder. "There, there, come on now, this is not really going to – "

There were footsteps and voices in the undergrowth.

"Crap! Ro, shut up for a minute, there's someone coming!" Gerry hissed.

That worked. Taking a gulping breath, Ro pulled her hands away from her face and listened. Even Wyl fell silent.

Nothing. There was nothing there. Maybe he had been mistaken, perhaps it had been squirrel…

No, there it was again, muttering and quiet footsteps.

Gerry and Ro glanced at each other, before simultaneously grabbing hold of Wyl by his tunic and dragging him back into the bush they'd spent the night in.

"Who do you think it – "

"Sssh!" Ro thumped Wyl on the arm, peering out from between the twigs. Gerry felt the same alarm. They had no weapons, nothing to defend themselves with. If they ran up against a group of bandits, they were as good as dead.

Whoever it was seemed to be trying to be quiet as well; they must have heard the three youngsters before Gerry had heard them.

From this angle, Gerry couldn't see how many had entered the clearing, but he could hear snatches of whispering.

"…think there was someone…"

"What…?"

"Don't…no one here…mistaken…"

Gerry looked at Ro over the top of Wyl's head; her eyes were puffy and red from crying. She had a frown on her face. He tapped her on the shoulder and mouthed, "What should we do?" when she looked at him.

Shaking her head, Ro held up a hand in a signal. _Wait_.

Finally two pairs of legs came into view. They were both covered with what looked like ragged nightdresses; one had a pair of dirty leather slippers, the other was barefoot.

"I'm sure I heard someone…wait, look at the ground! There's definitely been someone here!"

The quiet voice sent a pang through Gerry. He would know it anywhere.

Ro had obviously come to the same conclusion. She leapt out from the undergrowth before either of the boys had a chance to move.

There was a scream, a shout and then some _very _high pitched squealing. Gerry and Wyl emerged to a confusing scene, in which Ro was hugging a battered looking Ella and there was another girl – Gerry did a bit of a double take – another girl who looked _just_ like Ella, but with longer hair.

He walked over to them, relief and a different kind of worry spreading through him. "Ella! You escaped! How? Are you all right?"

Laughing, Ella disentangled herself from Ro and turned to hug him too. Now he was closer, Gerry took a step back and held up his hands as she came near. "Woah! What…what's that _smell_?"

"Gerry!" Ro snapped.

Ella halted and put her hands on her hips. "It's poo, if you must know. We are both covered in poo, moat water and only the gods know what else. Nice to see you too, by the way."

She was so busy looking crossly at him, that Ella completely missed the horrified look on Ro's face and the surreptitious way in which she tried to wipe the front of her tunic.

Gerry made what he hoped was an apologetic face. "Sorry it just…took me by surprise is all. I'll save my hug for later, if that's all right with you." He glanced at the other girl, who was swaying slightly and very pale. "Who's that?"

Ella sighed, rubbing a grubby hand over tired eyes. "My cousin, Derminia. She helped me escape. Demi, these are my friends; Ro, Gerry and Wyl."

The girl, who now he was closer didn't look as much like Ella as at first glance, looked back at them with huge, timid blue eyes. Her damp, filthy pigtails hung limply over her shoulders and her soggy nightdress was smeared with grime and ripped in several places, revealing scrapes and bruises.

Absorbing this information, Gerry turned back to Ella and looked at her properly. She was in the same state as her cousin, except for the fact that her forearms and elbows bore huge scrapes which, by the look of them, had been bleeding quite a lot.

"Gods!" exclaimed Ro, all of a sudden. She grabbed the smaller girl by her shoulders and spun her around. "What have you done to your back?"

Ella raised her eyebrows. "It's a _very_ long story. One I'd feel better telling on the move."

"But…" the squeak from Demi made everyone turn towards her. The girl blushed. "But Ella, we've been walking _all night_. Surely…"

"I'm sorry Demi, but we've had some good luck running into this lot. I don't want to risk that by lingering here too long and being caught."

Ro frowned. "Don't you think you ought to rest? We need to at least find a stream or something to clean you up, you don't want to…"

"Ro," Ella said, looking at her friend seriously. "They've got half of Stone Mountain out searching for us. As far as they're aware, I've kidnapped Demi. I _really_ don't want to risk it."

Gerry breathed in sharply at this new piece of information. This was even more serious then he'd first thought. "Come on then, let's be on the move. I think, now it's light, I can find the road once more. We'll stay off it, but use it as a guide. If we get going and luck stays on our side, we may even be back at Corus before midnight tonight."

With various nods and a dejected look from Demi, the five of them started to head home.

xxx

By midday, Ella was ready to drop. Everything hurt, from her feet – which they'd wrapped bits of Ro's tunic around in an attempt to protect them – to the headache that pounded steadily behind her eyes. She was starting to feel shivery and warm by turns, a sign she was developing a fever; one that was probably being caused by the infection settling into her cuts and scrapes. She hadn't had any food since lunch of the day before and _no _sleep since the night before that.

"Ella?" Ro was looking at her with concern. "Maybe we _should_ stop. Just for a little bit. You look terrible."

Smiling to try and make Ro feel better, Ella shook her head. "I'm all right. I'd rather just get back to Corus. We're making better time than I thought; Gerry's surprisingly good at finding his way in the woods when he needs to."

"He is useful for something after all," Ro grinned. They both looked ahead of them, where Wyl was bouncing along – the arrival of the girls had done wonders for his mood – keeping up a long string of stories. The target of his incessant talking, Demi, was being carried piggy-back style by a silently suffering Gerry. The fact Demi had been asleep for the last hour or so didn't seem to register with Wyl, who was currently half-way through his third tale about his father's entanglements with bandits.

Sharing a glance, Ro and Ella chuckled at the scene, which had been providing them with amusement for quite a while now, when Ella tripped and fell onto her knees.

"Bugger!"

"Are you okay?" Ro helped her to her feet.

The woods around them spun for a little. Ella tried to ignore the woozy feeling in her head as she bent and brushed down Wyl's tunic, which she had donned in place of her ruined nightgown. "I'm fine."

"I can carry you too, it's not like you're _that_ heavy…"

"Ro, seriously, I'm all right. Thanks." Ella had her pride, although the offer was sounding more tempting by the second.

"What are you two doing back there?" They turned to find Gerry and Wyl had stopped to see what was going on.

"Nothing," sighed Ella. "I was just being a clumsy mare. Come on, if we want to get home before the Provost Guard shut the gates of the city for the night, we need to keep moving."

Gerry looked like he was about to argue, when a most unwelcome sound reached their ears.

Hoof beats and the jangle of armour.

"Damn it! Gerry I _told_ you we were too close to the road!" hissed Ro.

"Not the time!" he snapped back. He shifted Demi's weight higher on his back. The movement woke the girl.

"What's going on?" she murmured sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

"Come on, let's go this way, we can…" Ella froze. Through the trees she could see the glint of chain mail and weapons.

"But…" whispered Ro. "We can't go the other way, because…"

They all looked at each other, the same fear mirrored on their faces.

They had been surrounded.


	30. Surrounded

**Would I leave you dangling off that cliff for a long time? Well, to be honest, I would, but I'm feeling nice (and had a free evening) so here's the next instalment (chapter 30! Gosh!) and I hope it satisfies.**

**I haven't done this for some time (mainly because most of the last chapters only really had my original characters) but anything you recognise as belonging to Tamora Pierce, does. **

**Thanks for all the reviews and happy reading!**

**(I have just re-uploaded this chapter - I'm sure there are gremlins that come and put in annoying errors once I've already uploaded them!)**

30

Ella seemed to have lost the ability to think. She could feel the others draw close around her, their panic almost a physical presence in the air. Through the trees in front of them, behind them, to the side of them…the riders were coming closer. There was nowhere for them to run.

"What should we do?" That was Demi, standing on her own two feet now, clinging so tightly to Ella she would probably add to her array of bruises.

She didn't have an answer. They had no weapons and, even if they did, how could they expect to defend themselves against _that_ many armed men on horseback?

_This is it. There's no getting out of this one. I'm going to be in so much trouble. What will they do? If Demi confesses that she wasn't really kidnapped, she'll be punished. If she doesn't, then…I don't even know what will happen. And Ro, Gerry and Wyl…they'll be blamed too! They'll be accused of kidnapping Demi as well! Oh Goddess, if ever you were listening, please help, this is all my fault, I'm sorry, don't let my friends be punished for what I've done…_

The others moved in closer around Ella and Demi, instinctively forming a circle around them to protect them.

"Ro…" Ella whispered through a dry mouth. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…"

Her best friend's hand found hers and squeezed firmly.

The riders that had come up behind them broke through the trees first. Ella's heart sank all the way down to her stomach – they were wearing Stone Mountain colours. The rider at the head of the group wore a grim smile.

"That was a very, very _stupid _thing to have done, Ellabelle. And I see your little friends have returned. More the worse for them." Aldren's hand tightened around his sword. "Hold them," he said to the men surrounding him.

As the nearest riders went to slide out of their saddles, Ella broke away from the group. "No! Let them go. They had nothing to do with it, on my honour. You just want me. I did it all."

"Ella, no!" Ro and Gerry shouted simultaneously.

Aldren sheathed his sword and dismounted; in a few strides had reached Ella. He grabbed her by the shoulder of the tunic she was wearing. "In all my life, I have never come across a more stubborn, disagreeable, insolent child. I see now that it will be more difficult than I imagined breaking you to bridle. And now you seek to corrupt my daughter as well! You have made a grievous mistake in making an enemy of me Ella." He glanced up to where Demi was huddled with the others. "Derminia! Come here at once. The rest of you will be escorted back to Stone Mountain, where I will decide the punishments you deserve."

Ella spat in his face.

He gave her a slap that made her ears ring so much, Ella missed the commotion that broke out around and behind her. When her vision cleared, she blinked, not sure she was seeing correctly.

Her uncle had fallen quite still, though his grip on her shoulder had not slackened. The reason he had frozen was very apparent – there was an extraordinarily large blade pressed to the side of his neck.

"Let her go."

If it hadn't been for the stinging in her cheek, Ella might have thought she was dreaming that voice.

Aldren, his blunt features suddenly very pale, croaked a response, "Back off _wench_. You have no business here."

"I think you'll find I have plenty of business here. These young people are under my care and therefore under my protection. I'll say it again, slower, so it gets through that thick skull of yours. Let. Her. Go."

Snarling a string of oaths, Aldren released his grip on Ella. No sooner had he done so then a new hand grasped her other shoulder and pulled her backwards.

Ella stumbled and found herself thrust into the arms of a man she vaguely recognised. Captain Domitan of Third Company. He smiled down at her, blue eyes so like Gerry's, and gave her a wink.

So stunned, she could not form words, Ella merely gazed back at him, before turning to look at the scene around her. Her friends were surrounded, but not by the Stone Mountain men. The bright blue and silver uniforms of the King's Own had never looked so welcome before. And not just them – Sir Nealan was there and Sir Merric. Both wore full armour and had their swords drawn.

The Stone Mountain men were outnumbered, that much was clear. Hope rose in Ella's breast as her eyes found the spot she had been standing herself only seconds before.

Lady Keladry, her eyes blazing from beneath her helm, removed the blade of her glaive from Aldren's neck. She stepped back a pace, keeping the weapon poised and ready.

Aldren was white with fury, but there was nothing he could do. The King's Own men all had their weapons – bows and spears mainly – pointed directly at him and his guard. The Stone Mountain soldiers were looking uncertain, clearly unwilling to engage in a fight they would not win and against the official army no less.

"You will regret this!" Aldren pointed a shaking finger at the Lady Knight. "That girl has kidnapped my daughter. I am well within my rights to punish her as I see fit."

"Well, if we're on the subject of kidnapping, My Lord, I think that you're not really in a position to be accusing anyone." Lady Keladry's voice was soft and even. Only those who had spent a lot of time with her would hear the brimming anger hiding under the surface.

The words caught in Aldren's throat. "I kidnapped no one! There is no proof of that. Ellabelle is family, I was merely trying to help her after her failure in the exams…"

"Proof!" Ella was shaken out of her silence. "There's plenty of proof! My testament for one thing; do you really want me to go into what happened, Uncle? And as for – "

"That's enough for now, Ella," Lady Keladry cut her off. Captain Domitan gripped Ella's shoulder reassuringly.

The Lady Knight looked back at Aldren. "We are leaving now. These youngsters will be accompanying us to Corus. Their stories will be heard and, if you wish to come and give your own version of events, My Lord, then I suggest you present yourself to the King. Are we clear?"

"We are not clear! I am within my rights to have these troublemakers punished for trespassing and – "

"You are not on Stone Mountain land any more, My Lord. Your rights change somewhat. This is a matter for the Crown now." Keladry's argument was backed up by the men behind her tightening their grips on their weapons.

Aldren took a deep breath through his nose as he realised he had no choice. "Very well. We'll see what the Crown has to say about this. Return my daughter to me and be on your way."

Lady Keladry glanced behind her, sharp gaze taking in the bedraggled blonde girl huddled between Gerry and Wyl. "This is your daughter?" She held a hand out to the girl. "What's your name, my dear?"

"Demi," she whispered, stepping forward timidly and taking the Lady Knight's free hand, as though she could not believe her eyes.

"Well, Demi," Keladry's voice was kind as she smiled at the girl. "The choice is yours. If what your Father says is true, then by all means we will return you to him. If not, then you are more than welcome to come with us."

"Derminia!" Aldren snapped, making Demi jump and wince. "Come here at once! Lady Keladry, release my daughter to me this instant!"

Lady Keladry knelt before Demi and turned her face with a gentle finger, so she was looking in her eyes. "What's your choice?"

Ella watched with her heart in her mouth. Demi looked terrified, and Ella was sure that her cousin was about to give in to the fear she had lived in all her life and return to her father.

Swallowing nervously, Demi whispered, so softly that Ella nearly missed it and Lady Keladry had to lean in, "I want to come with you. Please don't send me back there."

Smiling, the Lady Knight patted her hand and passed her over to Sir Nealan, who had come up quietly.

Coming back to standing, Keladry watched expressionlessly as Aldren cursed and raged. Finally he tired of shouting at people who were not going to retaliate in any way. Signalling to his men, the Stone Mountain contingent remounted.

As they set off, Aldren had the last word. "Mark my words, _knight_. This is not the end of this. I'll see you in Corus."

xxx

Kel huffed a sigh of relief as the last of the Stone Mountain men disappeared into the trees. She had worried for a while that there might have been a fight – one that her side would have won, granted, but she was glad to have avoided unnecessary bloodshed.

"Well," Dom remarked. "That was an interesting turn of events."

Shaking her head, Kel regarded the young ones in front of her. The little girl, Demi, was being ministered to by Neal, who had recognised someone about to collapse when he saw it. The green light of his magic washed over the battered looking child, who strangely seemed to be wearing nothing but an overlarge tunic in Hollyrose colours. Gerry's tunic, if she had to guess.

The errant squire and his friends all looked extremely sheepish as she turned her gaze onto them. In fact, none of them would meet her eyes.

"Well?" Kel leant on her glaive and tapped her foot. "What do you three have to say for yourselves?"

Taking a deep breath, Ro looked up and started to babble some explanation, only to be interrupted by Gerry, with Wyl adding his piece, until all three were talking over each other and Kel's head started to spin.

"Enough!" Kel removed her helm and ran her fingers through sweaty hair. "It can wait until we get back to the Palace. I'm sure there's a marvellous explanation for why your horses and weapons are missing, _which I will hear later_," she added quickly, cutting off Ro with a glare, "but for now, you're going to have to double up in the saddle with someone."

Finally, she turned her attention to the cause of all this trouble. Ella was being supported by Dom still, looking like she was dead on her feet. She too was wearing nothing but an oversized tunic – a page's one this time – and she didn't even have shoes on. Kel frowned as she took in bruises, dark shadows under the girl's eyes and horrible looking grazes on her arms.

"Well, Squire Brightleigh, it seems there's going to be a lot of explaining to do once we get back to the Palace. First though, it looks like you need a trip to the healer's and…" Kel sniffed the air. Something wasn't quite right. "...and the baths. I do know of a very worried father who is going to be pleased as punch to see his daughter again." Kel smiled.

Ella managed a shaky smile back. "Thank you My Lady." She paused as if something had occurred to her. "What…what about my mother?"

Kel's smiled faded. "We left her in talks with the King, I'm afraid, once we realised these three had gone haring off playing knights in shining armour." Ro, Gerry and Wyl shifted uncomfortably.

"Please don't be too hard on them, My Lady," said Ella. "They were only trying to help. I'm the one who should be sorry for all the trouble I've caused…"

"It's not your fault Ella!" broke in Ro, aghast.

"Ryoku is right," Kel shook her head. "I'm afraid this probably won't be the end of it. Your Uncle won't let this lie. Thankfully however, the King seems to be taking our side on this over the conservatives. For a change," she added bitterly. At Dom's raised eyebrows, she said hastily, "Of course, kidnapping and tampering with the page exams is an extremely serious issue, one His Majesty will deal with justly. However, as I'm sure you're old enough to be aware of by now, nothing is ever as simple as we would like it."

At Ella's weary nod, Kel glanced at Dom, who nodded at her that his men were ready to leave. The King's Own men wore lighter armour than the three knights, so they took a youngster each, with the exception of Neal who carefully held a sleeping Demi in front of him on the saddle.

As Kel helped Ella up onto the saddle in front of Dom, she gave the girl a pat on the arm. "We'll sort it all out; don't worry about it, Ella. I'm glad we have you back in one piece. Are you sure you're ok for the ride back? You don't look that great, I'm afraid to say."

Tiredly, Ella grinned at her. "I know; I must look awful. But I'm alright, truly. At least, I am now anyway. Thank you My Lady. I don't know how I can ever repay you."

Kel returned the grin. "Well, we'll think of something I'm sure, Squire Brightleigh."

As Kel swung up onto her warhorse, Hana, her grin widened. She could almost hear the cogs turning in the young girl's brain.

"That's the second time she's called me that." Ella's voice had a distant quality to it, as if she were trying to work something out.

"Hmm?" came Dom's voice from behind. "Called you what?"

Kel could not see Ella's expression as she waved her hand in the signal to move-out, but she could take a good guess at what it would be.

There was a pause, filled by the noise of hooves as the company started on their way back to Corus. Then Ella's voice came again.

"Squire…she called me Squire."

**A/N: The name of Kel's warhorse, 'Hana', is Japanese for "flower" or "blossom" (according to Google Translate anyway!) **


	31. The King

**Ta da! As if by magic! Nothing like a bit of other random writing to get the old creative juices flowing. Sorry it's taken so long! Enjoy!**

31

Ella opened her eyes. She didn't move straight away, but stared at the ceiling overhead, trying to acclimatise to her surroundings.

"You're awake."

It wasn't a question, but a statement. Ella twisted her head to see Sir Nealan smiling down at her.

She opened her mouth to reply, but her throat was bone dry. Seeing her discomfort, Sir Nealan helped prop up her pillows and held a cup of water to her lips. She was relieved to find it untainted by any foul tasting herbs.

Ella reached up to take the cup herself. Sir Nealan smiled at her and pulled up a chair by the bed.

"I think another day's rest and you'll be right as rain."

"How long have I slept for?" asked Ella, setting the cup down on the bedside table. Memories swirled of arriving back at the Palace; her father had run to meet her, sweeping her into an enormous hug, one that had made her wince at the pain from her cuts and scrapes. She had been whisked off to the healers' wing without further ado, bathed, smothered in various ointments and given a cup of something noxious to drink. That was the last thing she remembered.

"About a day and a half. It was to be expected." Sir Nealan took her wrist, feeling her pulse and then turning her arm to check on the patch of skin she had scraped on the way down the privy chute. It was practically healed, only a faint scar left as testament to it. Nealan checked her other arm and then made her sit forward while he looked at the larger scrape on her back. He smiled, satisfied. "Everything is looking just fine. The infection's cleared up and there'll be no permanent damage. You might even be able to go back to your own room this evening."

Ella nodded. She thought for a moment, before asking, "Sir Nealan? Do you know what's going on? What's happened to my mother? What about Uncle Aldren?"

He smiled again. "Sorry Ella. I don't know any more than you do. I've been busy down here while everything's being sorted out. I'm sure we'll hear some news soon."

"What about Demi?"

"She's in the bed next to you," Nealan pointed at the sleeping figure. "She's fine. Just exhausted. She hasn't got the same sort of stamina you have."

Ella grinned at him, before yawning widely. Seconds later, she was asleep again.

The next time she awoke, it was to familiar noisy clattering by the side of her bed.

"Ah, Miss Ella. You're awake! Feeling better?"

Sitting up, Ella smiled at Millie. Her former maid, in a neat healer's uniform, beamed back, before helping Ella out of bed and holding out neatly folded shirt and breeches for her to dress in.

While pulling on a pair of leather slippers, Millie produced a tray of fruit and bread. Ella tucked in with gusto, feeling hungrier than usual. As she ate, she glanced round.

"Where's my cousin?"

"Miss Derminia woke up a while ago. She's with Lord Elbert, Miss."

Satisfied, Ella finished eating. As she was wiping her fingers on a napkin, the door to the room opened.

Lady Keladry strode into the room. Nodding politely at Millie, the Lady Knight addressed Ella.

"How are you now Ella? It's good to see you up."

"I am much better, thank you My Lady," answered Ella, getting to her feet and bowing.

"Good. If you're feeling up to it, the King has asked to speak with you."

Ella's heart skipped a beat. The King! Wanted to speak to _her? _The only time she had ever seen him was at Midwinter or when he came to speak to the pages at the start of every year. Even then, his mere presence seemed overwhelming. But to speak to him in person…

The blood must have drained from her face, because Lady Keladry suddenly looked rather concerned. "Ella? If you're not feeling well still, then it can wait. I'm sure we can – "

"No, My Lady," Ella interrupted. She took a deep breath. "I'm ready."

_I'm not ready_, she thought to herself, minutes later, standing outside the door to the King's office. She nervously smoothed her hair down for the twentieth time and was paranoid that, despite a bath, she still smelt of privy.

"Stop it," whispered Lady Keladry. "You'll be fine."

The door was opened by a servant and they were announced. Walking into the room, Ella's eyes went straight to King Jonathan, seated behind a large oak desk. Even though he was in his early sixties, Ella could see he must have been incredibly handsome in his younger days. Even now, his piercing blue eyes drew attention away from the thinning grey hair.

Ella stared for a moment, like a frightened rabbit, until Lady Keladry gave her a gentle nudge. Remembering herself, Ella bowed deeply.

The King gave her a kind smile and gestured to the chairs placed in front of his desk. "Lady Knight, Ellabelle, welcome. Please, have a seat."

Ella perched on the edge of the chair, trying to resist the urge to swing her legs back and forth nervously (her feet didn't touch the floor).

The King said nothing for a while. He merely folded his hands and rested his chin upon them, gazing intently at the young girl before him. Ella held his gaze for a couple of seconds, before dropping her own eyes to her clenched hands in her lap.

"How much has been explained to you, Ellabelle?"

She jumped and glanced up at him. "N-not m-much…Your Majesty. I have been in the healers' wing and I've been asleep for most of that, so no one's really had the chance to tell me anything and…"

A gentle cough from Lady Keladry made Ella pause. She licked suddenly very dry lips.

"Well then, I shall explain. Your uncle turned up at my door about twelve hours ago." Seeing Ella's frightened gaze, King Jonathan's expression hardened. "You do not need to worry about him anymore; I give you my word as King on that. For some reason, Aldren seemed to consider his actions in kidnapping you justified. I felt otherwise. Despite his protestations, I have hard, clear evidence of his and his sister's plan to get you away from the Palace and out of page training. To do both of these things, they have broken several laws of my kingdom. They will learn that I do not take such things lightly."

Ella swallowed and asked, "What…what will happen to them, Sire?"

"Aldren forfeits his lands, money and titles to the Crown. Stone Mountain will be given a new lord, one that I hope will bring better fortune to the fief than previous owners."

"What about Auntie Evaline? She had nothing to do with this, truly. Please don't punish her as well!" Ella said, the thought striking her suddenly. Hearing another cough from Lady Keladry, she added, "Your Majesty."

The King gave her another smile. "I have already spoken to your father. He was as worried about your aunt as you are. I have it under good assurance from him that she, and her children, will be welcome to stay with him at Brightleigh for as long as they need to. They will be well looked after."

Her heart lifted a bit. At the back of her mind, since their escape from Stone Mountain, Ella had worried about Evaline, Theodora and even young Burchard. A weight, that she hadn't even noticed pressing on her shoulders, vanished.

A new worry – a surprising one – surfaced. "What…what about my mother…?"

The King glanced at Lady Keladry briefly and then looked back at Ella directly. "I gave her an option…" he replied slowly. "Your father was most understanding, probably more so than I would have been in his situation. He agreed that she could be sent back to Brightleigh and to remain there under…well I suppose you could say 'house arrest' for the foreseeable future. Not too much of a hardship, given the nature of her crimes, as I'm sure you will agree." Jonathan paused, as if wondering how to continue. "She refused the offer. Lorette told me, in no uncertain terms, that she wished for her marriage to Elbert to be annulled. I have the power to do that, as King, you understand. Your father…did not argue. Therefore, they are no longer married in the eyes of the law. Lorette has decided that she will go with Aldren, in his disgrace. I believe they have plans to take refuge with their recently widowed sister, if she'll take them. Both Aldren and Lorette have strict instructions – from your father as well as from me – that if they so much come within a hair's breadth of you…" The King stopped and studied Ella, as if worried about her reaction.

In truth, Ella did not know what to think at this news. Half of her felt relieved, that her mother would not be at Brightleigh when she went home, that she wouldn't have to worry about her anymore.

The other half of her…Ella couldn't describe it. She didn't like her mother. She was not sure she _loved_ her – not even the sort of dutiful love a daughter should have even for the worst kind of mothers. And yet…now she was as good as gone, no longer married to her father, not allowed to come anywhere near Ella. It was pretty much what Ella had wished for on occasion.

But that brief glimpse of what her mother _could_ have been like, of what Ella had _believed_ she was turning into, before it was all revealed as a scam to save the family name...

There had been that look in her mother's eyes, as Ella had been shoved into the trunk. That fleeting look of regret.

"Ella?" A large, warm hand rested on her shoulder. Ella glanced up into Lady Keladry's anxious face. "Are you alright?"

Ella nodded and sniffed, wiping her eyes on her sleeve. She looked back at the King steadily. "Thank you Sire, for all you have done."

"You are more than welcome, young lady. I have heard a great deal about you in the last few days. It makes me regret we have not met sooner." The King sat up in his chair and considered her. "It would have been to the detriment to this realm to have lost the devoted knight I'm sure you are to become."

Ella's mouth opened and closed for a moment. She was aware she looked a bit like a fish. "So…is it true…I am to become a squire after all?" After Lady Keladry's hints on the way back to Corus, she hadn't dared hope, but now…

King Jonathan grinned widely. "Unless you have changed your mind about wanting your shield?"

"No!" Ella cried. She remembered herself and blushed. "No, sorry, Sire, I mean, no, no I haven't. Thank you."

"Then you are dismissed, Squire Brightleigh. Lady Knight, a word if you would?"

Ella didn't remember how she managed to clamber off the chair, bow and exit the room. For it seemed one moment she was in there and the next, she was outside in the corridor.

Ro was waiting. And Gerry.

"Well?" said Ro, practically hopping up and down. "Don't keep us in suspense! What did he _say_?"

The words "I'm a squire!" escaped from her lips in a high pitched squeak, as Ella slid down the wall onto the floor, her head in her hands, unable to speak – half from laughing, half from weeping.

xxx

Kel watched Ella leave the room, worried about the over-excited state the girl had worked herself up into so soon after a healing. A noise from the desk made her look back round at her monarch.

"Well, Keladry," King Jonathan said, folding his arms. "You are always one to speak your mind. What do you think?"

_About what?_ Kel thought, distractedly. "I think the right decisions were made in this case, Sire. The punishments have been just – nothing would be worse to a member of the Stone Mountain clan than the loss of their titles and estates."

"I thought as much too," nodded the King. "I will make sure his heirs don't suffer, however, they are innocent in this. Evaline and her children will be well looked after."

"I have it on good authority the eldest daughter wants to enter page training, Your Majesty," commented Kel.

"Does she now?" Jonathan stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Well, her fitness for such will have to be judged by the new training master…or mistress."

Kel suddenly felt tired. "I understand what you are getting at Sire. I have not, nor will I change my mind about my resignation." She blushed a little at the memory.

"No," Jonathan said, regarding her a little sadly. "I didn't think you would, really. It was worth a shot."

"I do apologise for the way in which I handled it, however. It was…unprofessional of me."

"It was unprofessional by _your_ standards, Lady Knight. Others would not think twice of losing their temper over matters more trivial than that. You've _met_ the Lioness, right?"

Kel allowed a small smile of agreement to show on her face.

The King shook his head. "Well, I will put my mind to choosing a new trainer for our young warriors and you can put your mind to what you want to do next. You are still fairly young, after all. Have you given it thought? We are not at war; therefore the choice is, up to a point, yours."

"I will probably see if the Own need a hand, or look in at New Hope for a while." Kel's smile broadened as a thought struck her. "Do you know what I shall do first, though, Sire? I think I shall enquire whether any of the new squires need a Knight Mistress to show them the ropes."


	32. News

**Bit of a "filler" chapter. Thanks to everyone still reading! :o)**

32

The pages were assembling for their summer camp – their last with Lady Keladry before she left her role for good. The hall in the pages' wing was filled with the hustle and bustle of boys hauling saddle bags and packs out from their rooms, excited chatter filling the air.

They scattered as a small blur, wearing the blue and silver of a new squire's uniform, sprinted past them.

"Oi! Watch it, Brightleigh!" said one of the new fourth year pages, as she collided with him.

"Sorry Fromer!" the girl shouted over her shoulder, as she continued to run to the end of the hall.

"Bloody girls, they're all mental," he muttered, shaking his head.

"Don't say that about Ella!" Wyl hit his year-mate on the shoulder. He glanced after her with a puzzled frown. "Although I wonder what's happened now."

xxx

"RoRoRoRoRoRoRoRoRooooooooo!"

"For Mithros' sake Ella, it's _open_!"

Ella stopped pounding on the door and tumbled into her friend's room. She ran across to where her friend was sat on the bed reading a book and bounced next to her. "Ro, the most _amazing _thing has just happened! I can't believe it! It's _amazing_!"

"Is it amazing by any chance?" asked Ro, leaning back against the wall and closing her eyes.

Too busy bouncing, Ella missed the glum note in Ro's voice. "Guess who just asked me to be their squire, just _guess_!"

Sighing, Ro raised her eyebrows. "Auntie Kel."

Ella stopped bouncing. "Yes. How did you…"

"She told me this morning that she was going to ask you. We had quite a long chat actually."

"Oh." A little deflated, Ella shifted so her back was against the wall and hugged her knees to her chest. "What's wrong?" A thought struck her. "Oh, Ro, you didn't want Lady Keladry to be _your_ knight mistress did you? I'm sorry, I should have thought, you two are so close, I don't want to – "

"No!" Ro looked horrified for a second. "The only thing worse than Auntie Kel being my knight mistress, would be Papa taking me on as a squire. I'd be nagged to death before I made it into the Chamber. No, I'm pleased for you, really."

"Then why are you so grumpy? I know it's bad Lady Keladry resigned her job, I have said sorry about it – "

"That wasn't your fault!"

"It sort of was; none of this would have happened if not for me. Anyway, I said that to Lady Keladry and she said the same as you and that she was thinking of quitting soon anyway and that she would enjoy getting out and being a proper knight again for a while and – "

"Ella, stop!" Ro cut off her tirade. "It's not about that."

"Then what?"

Ro shook her head. "When Auntie Kel came to speak to me about taking you on as her squire, she also came to speak to me about my punishment."

Ella blinked. "Punishment? For _what_?"

"Running off after you. It's been a week since we got back, I thought for a while we might get let off lightly, but no chance."

"Oh no…" Ella put her hand to her mouth. "Oh Ro, I'm _so_ sorry. What happened?"

"Well, Wyl's been banned from going into the city at all next year and he's got so much punishment work lined up, I'm surprised they let him go on the summer camp. As for Gerry, I think Sir Merric's playing it a little subtler. Auntie Kel told me he's going back to New Hope for a bit – you can bet Gerry's going to find himself mending a lot of roofs and cleaning a lot of privies in the town."

"And what about you?"

Ro's face took on a pained expression, but before she could open her mouth to explain, there was a knock on the door.

Wyl poked his head into the room. "Hey, we're just about off on camp. I came to say goodbye."

"Have fun!" said Ella. Ro winced.

"Everything all right? You seemed a little…excited when you ran past us earlier," asked Wyl, cocking his head.

Unable to prevent a grin breaking out on her face, Ella told him the news.

"That's great!" Wyl beamed. "I'm really pleased for you Ella. It's great that both of you got knight masters…sorry…master and mistress…so quickly. I hope the same thing happens to me. And that I'm as lucky as you two are with who picks me! Anyway, I'd best go. See you in a few weeks!" And with that he was gone.

Puzzled, Ella turned to Ro. "Wait…you've got a knight master as well? You didn't say. How come Wyl knows about it already?"

"He would," Ro replied, in a rather monotone voice, "because his father's at the Palace at the moment."

Ella frowned, not understanding.

"I wasn't given the option to turn him down. Auntie Kel and Papa were being even more sadistic than usual when they thought this little gem up. Because the whole rescue thing was my idea, I suppose. So I get four years of torture. When I said the worst thing would be to have my gods-mother or my father as my knight master? I'm actually starting to re-think. I may not be nagged to death, but I will enter the Chamber a stark-raving lunatic."

Enlightenment slowly dawned on Ella. "Do you mean to say that…?"

"Yes. For the next four years, I'll be wearing Jesslaw colours and having the _jolliest_ of times," said Ro, putting her head into her hands in despair.

Ella grabbed the nearest cushion and buried her face in it, so she wouldn't offend Ro with her uncontrollable laughter.

xxx

"Do you think we were a little bit too harsh on Ro?"

Kel glanced at Neal, unable to prevent herself from smiling. "Of course not. She'll be off bashing manners into bandits. What young squire doesn't dream of doing that?"

"I'm pretty sure I didn't," muttered Neal.

"That's because you're a Meathead. Ro will be fine; she'll just have to get on with Owen. Sarcasm and witty remarks go over his head most of the time anyway, so she won't offend him too much at least."

"True, at least he won't lose his temper with her. It's a good thing Lady Alanna's pretty much retired now or I would have suggested that route…Mithros knows I got a tongue bashing from her every hour or so."

"So _that's_ how those rumours started."

Neal was momentarily lost for words, before bursting into laughter. "Keladry of Mindelan, did you just make a dirty joke?"

Yanking the strap on her saddle bags tighter, Kel merely smiled. "Would I?" Truth was she was feeling rather light hearted. Though part of her was sad at leaving her post as training mistress, a larger part was thrilled about getting back out into active duty.

_This must be how Lord Wyldon felt when he got to his post at Mastiff. He was always happier there in the mud and cold then he was while training us._

The first few pages started to trickle into the stable yard. Her last summer camp. Kel sent a brief prayer up to the gods that it would be a good one without mishap.

"Ella's your new squire then," commented Neal.

"Mmm…" Kel muttered, keeping an eye on the boys as they scrambled to get their horses ready for the journey. Hana whickered and nudged her with his nose. She patted it absent-mindedly.

"To stop her getting into any more trouble or to make sure she actually _got_ a knight master?" probed Neal further.

Kel blinked and looked at him askance. "Neither, truth be told. I think she'll benefit from having a female knight show her the ropes more than most and…well, I like her. She's got guts and a quick mind. I think she'll be a fantastic knight and I'd like to have a hand in helping her get there."

Neal looked at her searchingly, before nodding. "I think you're right." He was silent for a while, fiddling with the reins of his own horse. "Did you see Aldren and Lorette leave the other day?"

Wrinkling her nose, Kel nodded, wishing she hadn't been witness to the ugly scene of the brother and sister being escorted off Palace premises by a group of guards. Aldren had not accepted his fate without a fight. Kel had been present, as per the 'request' of the king, to be present at the final judgement. She had been shocked at the language the now ex-Lord of Stone Mountain had fired both at her and his king. Schooling her face into Yamani blankness, Kel had managed to keep calm and it seemed Jonathan had been taking some tips of his own from his daughter-in-law. Aldren had exhausted himself before Jonathan coolly replied that he was not about to change his mind and that Aldren was fortunate not to be facing an even more serious penalty.

Lorette had said nothing. She had not asked to see her daughter. She seemed to want nothing more to do with Ella or Elbert, or indeed anything at all. The woman looked blank, as if she had mentally removed herself from the situation, and that had bothered Kel more than if the woman had cursed or sworn at her like Aldren was doing.

"I wonder if their sister will take them in. That family's all about honour. The disgrace that's been heaped on the two of them…I shouldn't wonder if they'll be left out on the streets," Neal said, breaking through her thoughts.

Kel shrugged. "I don't know Neal." The last of the pages had saddled up and the Shang Lion signalled from across the yard that everything was ready. Hauling herself into the saddle, Kel waited until Neal had mounted, before adding, "To be honest, I hope that's the last we'll ever hear from them."

"I'm sure it will be," replied Neal, checking his stirrups. "They're hardly in a position to try anything now."

"Maybe." Kel looked round at her last cohort of pages and gave a smile. "Let's go!"


End file.
